7 Kamal 168 B.E. (Baha’i Calendar)
Soundtrack in my head: Adult Net, “Take Me”
I’ve just finished my ten-week statistics course. Well, sort of–I still have one last paper due next week. I took my final exam last Thursday night, and now I’m giving myself permission to be hazy and lazy.
Many people complain bitterly about the statistics class they are required to take, and I’m not going to say I disagree. The father of a housemate of mine has a degree in math, and he once told me that to truly understand statistics, one has to have a solid understanding of both trigonometry and calculus. The latter I have never taken, and the former I remember very little of. I know that the “sin,” “cos,” and “tan” buttons on a scientific calculator stand for sine, cosine and tangent, that all have something to do with triangles, and that the calculator creates funny numbers when I push those buttons, but other than that, I don’t remember anything about trig. I need to be able to understand why something works the way it does, almost in a visual way, and that just wasn’t possible in an introductory statistics class for social workers. My vision got blurry when I saw formulas like M-Za/2 *o/sqrt n <= u <= M + Za/2*o/sqrt n, and I’d think to myself, “yeah, I’m really learning this stuff, aren’t I?”
I have the month off as far as class is concerned, and then, come September, I will start my graduate program. In some ways, this statistics class was a nice introduction back to the academic world. It was difficult to go straight from work to class every Tuesday night, and it was a challenge at times to make time for the readings, homework and studying that was necessary. I also wrote about how challenging it was to navigate my way through the labyrynthine university system.
It was nice to wake up this morning and watch the rain fall as I looked out the window. I wrote in my personal journal and am now writing this blog post. There is still a lot I need to do personally this month, but I’m also giving myself permission to be hazy and lazy…
