Math 401/601 Mathematical Statistics

Fall 2014

Section 001 10:20 to 11:20, M W F

Instructor: Dr. Chris Edwards Phone: 424-1358 or 948-3969 Office: Swart 123

Classroom: Swart 203 Text: Mathematical Statistics with Applications, 6^th or 7^th edition, by Wackerly, Mendenhall, and Scheaffer. Link to Homework pdf

Catalog Description: Probability and combinatorial methods, discrete and continuous distributions, multivariate distributions, expected values, moments, normal and derived distributions, estimation, and testing hypotheses.

Course Objectives: The goal of statistics is to gain understanding from data. This course focuses on critical thinking and active learning involving mathematical statistics. Students will be engaged in statistical modeling and will develop intuition concerning mathematical statistics, including the use of appropriate technology. Specifically students will develop

• an awareness of the nature and value of theoretical statistics

• a sound, critical approach to interpreting statistics, including possible misuses

• facility with statistical calculations and evaluations, using appropriate technology

• effective written and oral communication skills

Grading: Final grades are based on these 300 points:

	Topic	Points	Tentative Date	Chapters
Exam 1	Probability and Distributions	100 pts.	October 3	1 to 4
Exam 2	Multivariate Distributions	100 pts.	November 12	5 to 7
Exam 3	Inference	100 pts.	December 12	8 to 10

Final grades are assigned as follows:

270 pts. A (90 %) 260 pts. A- (87 %)
250 pts. B+ (83 %) 240 pts. B (80 %)
230 pts. B- (77 %) 220 pts. C+ (73 %)
210 pts. C (70 %) 200 pts. C- (67 %)
190 pts. D+ (63 %) 180 pts. D (60 %)
179 pts. or less F

Homework: Weekly homework problems are listed below. The dates listed on the course outline below are the days I will post solutions to the problems. I suggest that you work together in small groups on the homework if you like, but don’t forget that I am a resource for you to use. While I will not be grading the homework, it is essential to your understanding to work all assigned problems.

Office Hours: Office hours are times when I will be in my office to help you. There are many other times when I am in my office. If I am in and not busy, I will be happy to help. My office hours for Fall 2014 semester are 9:00 to 11:00 Tuesday, and 3:00 to 4:00 Wednesday, or by appointment.

Philosophy: I strongly believe that you, the student, are the only person who can make yourself learn. Therefore, whenever it is appropriate, I expect you to discover the mathematics we will be exploring. I do not feel that lecturing to you will teach you how to do mathematics. I hope to be your guide while we learn some mathematics, but you will need to do the learning. I expect each of you to come to class prepared to digest the day’s material. That means you will benefit most by having read each section of the text before class.

My idea of education is that one learns by doing. I believe that you must be engaged in the learning process to learn well. Therefore, I view my job as a teacher not as telling you the answers to the problems we will encounter, but rather pointing you in a direction that will allow you to see the solutions yourselves. To accomplish that goal, I will find different interactive activities for us to work on. Your job is to use me, your text, your friends, and any other resources to become adept at the material.

Math 601 Expectations: Expectations for the graduate students are understandably more rigorous than for the undergraduate student. Students taking Math 601 will have an extra theoretical problem added to each exam. In addition, a final project worth 50 points will be due at the end of the semester.

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
September 1 No Class	September 3 Day 1 Introduction, 301 Review Chapter 1	September 5 Day 2 Sets, Sample Spaces Sections 2.1 to 2.5
September 8 Day 3 Combinations Section 2.6	September 10 Day 4 Homework 1 Cond. Prob., Laws, RVs Sections 2.7 to 2.13	September 12 Day 5 Discrete pdfs Sections 3.1 to 3.2
September 15 Day 6 Expected Value Section 3.3	September 17 Day 7 Homework 2 Binary RVs Sections 3.4 to 3.7	September 19 Day 8 Poisson Section 3.8
September 22 Day 9 Moment Generating Function Section 3.9	September 24 Day 10 Homework 3 Continuous pdfs Sections 4.1 to 4.2	September 26 Day 11 Expected Value/Uniform Sections 4.3 to 4.4
September 29 Day 12 Normal and Gamma Distributions Sections 4.5 and 4.6	October 1 Day 13 Homework 4 Multivariate pdfs Sections 5.1 to 5.2	October 3 Day 14 Exam 1
October 6 Day 15 Marginal, Conditional Section 5.3	October 8 Day 16 Independence Section 5.4	October 10 Day 17 Expected Values Sections 5.5 and 5.6
October 13 Day 18 Homework 5 Covariance and EVs Sections 5.7 and 5.8	October 15 Day 19 cdf Technique Sections 6.1 to 6.3	October 17 Day 20 cdf Technique Sections 6.1 to 6.3
October 20 Day 21 Homework 6 Transformation Technique Section 6.4	October 22 Day 22 Transformation Technique Section 6.4	October 24 Day 23 MGF Technique Section 6.5
October 27 Day 24 Homework 7 Order Statistics Section 6.7	October 29 Day 25 t and F Section 7.2	October 31 Day 26 CLT Section 7.3
November 3 Day 27 Homework 8 CLT Section 7.4	November 5 Day 28 MSE Section 8.2	November 7 Day 29 Unbiasedness Section 8.3
November 10 Day 30 Homework 9 Efficiency Section 9.2	November 12 Day 31 Exam 2	November 14 Day 32 Consistency Section 9.3
November 17 Day 33 Sufficiency Section 9.4	November 19 Day 34 MVUEs Section 9.5	November 21 Day 35 Homework 10 Moments and MLEs Sections 9.6 and 9.7
November 24 Day 36 Testing Review Sections 10.1 to 10.6	November 26 No Class	November 28 No Class
December 1 Day 37 Power Review Section 10.4	December 3 Day 38 Homework 11 Neyman-Pearson Lemma Section 10.10	December 5 Day 39 Neyman-Pearson Lemma Section 10.10
December 8 Day 40 Likelihood Tests Section 10.11	December 10 Day 41 Homework 12 Likelihood Tests Section 10.11	December 12 Day 42 Exam 3

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Last updated August 1, 2014