DSST Principles of Statistics

[Old Rusty Pipe]

Greetings everyone. I've just recently completed my Princlples of Management CLEP, and the DSST for Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior. I did this before I found instantcert on the web.

I'm currently going through the InstantCert notes for the Principles of Statistics. So far I'm assimilating it at a fairly rapid pace but I have one concern. I absolutely have to take the DSST for Statistics on the January 3. With only 2 and half week to prep and study, what other really good resources would anyone recommend that I can get my hands on fairly quick.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[dhlvrsn]

a quick search of the forum will turn up numerous sources. There are a bunch of online videos at Teacher Resources by Annenberg Media. I also used the Dummies workbook (not the book. This one is full of problems with answers spelled out.) Besides those and instantcert I'd recommend spending time studying null hypothesis equations. If you stick with it January 3rd should be no problem. I found this test to be very concept based in that if you knew the information there was not a lot of calculating to do.

Good luck!

[Old Rusty Pipe]

I got my hands on the Statistics Workbook for Dummies and only briefly looking over it, its going to help out a lot. Should I bother getting a calculator for the Statistics test or just go with pen and paper?

[dhlvrsn]

I used a calculator with all the basic stats functions. Keep in mind that there are multiple versions of the exam. For the version that I took I used my calculator quite a bit. It just happened that I never needed the stat functions.

[xn85turbo]

I took this test today written version and it took me 3.5 hours (there is no way people are going to be able to do the same test in the two hour electronic window version). I had 97 questions and all I can say is after 6 weeks of study (I usually do 1 week per exam and passed 5 in 7 weeks just before studying for this one) I think at best I got a 36 and needed a 48 but 2-6 weeks of waiting will tell for sure.

I had tons of Null Hypothesis (15-20 questions), I saw zero Z tables or one to reference, had chi square, correlation, heck I would say half my test came from "chance model & sampling and test of significance", venn, correlation regression, and very little on descriptive statistics (SD). I guessed at 80 percent. I thought I had the IC stuff down. I used IC, pass you class study guide (worthless and several wrong answers I am going to ask for a refund even if I pass, heck will even give them the correct answers), and The Complete Idiots Guide to Statistics (wish I spent more time on in this book).

If I fail I will wait to redo this after I finish every other class for my degree which is 59 more credits. This was the most awful test I have ever taken and all I can say is it shouldn't be mandatory for a degree that is not math related.

I hope everyone’s experience isn't like the one I had today when taking this exam.

[Old Rusty Pipe]

I'm sorry to hear about your Statistics test going so badly. Hopefully I'll have better luck. In any event, thanks for the tip on Null Hypothesis. Definitely going to be giving it a lot more attention than I originally was, and originally I was giving it extra attention. Know soon enough if all these videos and IC will be enough.

Thanks to everyone for the aid so far.

[Old Rusty Pipe]

I've worked through all of the Instant Cert materials, watched all the videos for 'Against All Odds: Inside Statistics', and worked through the entire Statistics Workbook for Dummies. I feel that I've gotten it all pretty much down, and am just going to keep reinforcing it for the next couple of days.

My biggest concern are the math equations themselves. How well do I need to know these?

I understand calculating means, median, interquartile range, etc. I figured out how to calculate standard deviation using my calculator. But what about regression lines? Geometry was never my strong point.

If I have the concepts of everything down should I be fine or does the math figure heavily into the line of questioning. I'm going to Saint Leo University and the DSST are all pass/fail so there is no difference between a 50 and an 80. Should I have enough to safely nail it?

[dhlvrsn]

Since there are multiple versions of the exams you need to be ready for anything. I'd think that with all of that under your belt a pass should be easy. Those are the only materials I used and I scored enough for an A. There were almost no calculations on the exam that I took. No regressions, Z-scores nothing (That doesn't mean that you don't need to know the info. The questions are about understanding the concept not calculating...)

There were a lot of questions about nul hypothesis. They seemed like they would have been easy if I understood what they were looking for. The following website has equations written in the same way that I remember from the exam. Knowing one sided vs two sided etc. will be good for a couple of points on the exam:

Statistics Glossary - hypothesis testing

As far as being ready only you can be the judge. I completed the test in 45 minutes and was scared to death by the number of null hypothesis questions. Others have said 3 1/2 hours.

Best of luck!

[Old Rusty Pipe]

Well I've taken all the practice exams I could for Statistics.

DSST: 8/10 (80%)
ECE: 20/25 (80%)
TECEP: 12/20 (60%)
AP Statistics: 11/18 (61%)

I'm fairly confident. I'll just keep plugging away at the material until Wednesday and post my results then. Thanks especially to dhlvrsn. You've been a tremendous help. I greatly appreciate it. With a little bit of luck I'll have one less class soon enough.

[adoncia]

Hi where did you get the ECE and TECEP practice exams for Statistics?
Adoncia