Study Aid Review: Mastering Statistics Volume 3

 

This is where Jason's statistics series really gets into the meat of a statistics course. The first two volumes and his old course were really going through the basics of the material. This one covers The Central Limit Theorem and Confidence Intervals, and how to use the various concepts to estimate population means both for large and small samples. As was the case with the previous sets he does not derive any of the formulas or use calculus to solve the problems. He explains how to use the various tables in the book, gives a lot of example problems, and explains how to interpret the problems so you know what is being asked. When it comes down to it, the math in statistics is relatively trivial (just some basic algebra at most) but realizing what the problem is asking and the approach to solving the problem is where the difficulty lies. Jason does a good job of cutting through that.

Like is the case for most of his newer sets, he spends one chapter (sometimes two) introducing a concept and giving some background, then subsequent chapters showing example problems on the concept. This keeps the chapters relatively short (anywhere from 5 to 35 minutes), and has a really good flow to the DVD. Also like the other DVD sets, he is not touching on everything from class (especially in multi-set series like this) so you cannot assume just because you have this you can skip class. But if you use it as intended, as a supplement, this will make your life much easier when you are doing homework or taking quizzes or exams.

There are three other sets to this series that Amazon does not have. Volume 4 finishes confidence intervals and introduces hypothesis testing. Volumes 5 and 6 are devoted entirely to hypothesis testing and variations of it. I am not sure at this point if that will be the end of the series, but given that hypothesis testing is a very large part of any statistics class you will probably want to check those out too.

Study Aid Review: Mastering Statistics Volume 2

 

This is set 2 in, as of this writing, a 6-volume set of mastering statistics volumes Jason has put out, with possibly more to come down the line. It is still covering basic material, and expanding on the core concepts that were introduced in the first volume, and there is still some overlap with the older set Jason put out years ago,  The Probability and Statistics Tutor - 10 Hour Course - 3 DVD Set - Learn By Examples! .

He starts out discussing discrete and continuous probability distribution, then basically spends the rest of the sections on Normal Probability Distribution (bell curves), finding the area under the bell curves using z-values and the tables in the back of most books. It should be noted that while he does mention that finding the area can be done with calculus and doing integration, he left that out and just focused on using the tables in the book, how to interpret the information in the problems, and look them up in the table. If you are taking a statistics class in the math curriculum that may be okay, but if you are taking something like an engineering data analysis class you will probably have to do the integration. But the integrals will end up being relatively basic and easily done with a graphing calculator so it should not cause most people in that situation a lot of problems.

If you have ever seen Jason's material, either because you own another set, or because you have seen sample videos on his site or on Youtube, it follows much the same format as his more recent DVDs. He introduces a concept in one or two lecture sections, then he does problems. Sometimes he does a couple problems in one chapter of the DVD, and sometimes just one. So overall the chapters are shorter, but he still packs a lot of information into the entire disc set. This is still the material that you will see early on in any statistics course, and would probably not cover all the material that you would get in a first exam. It probably translates to the material in the first 2 to 3 weeks of a course. Luckily the later volumes cover material like confidence intervals and hypothesis testing which make up the bulk of what any of the courses will cover.

I personally find that Jason's teaching style meshes with my learning style a lot. He explains things in a way that I find very easy to follow and I have used his DVD sets from algebra through advanced calculus and engineering. While none of his sets cover everything you will need to learn in the classes, and not even all the material you will likely be tested on, he goes through the big, main concepts that you have to know in order to be able to handle any other material. So while this is not a substitute for going to class or reading the book and doing homework, it will help you understand the material much more, so what is in the book is not so hard to follow, and if you have a teacher that is not so great, can make up for what you may not understand from him or her. They have been a great tool for me, and I cannot recommend them more if you are a visual and/or auditory learner.

Study Aid Review: Mastering Statistics Volume 1

 

I own most of Jason's DVD sets (aside from the very basic math sets and his Java programming sets). Some I have purchased through Amazon, and some through his website directly. I am back in school to get an electrical engineering degree. Next fall I have to take data analysis, which is basically applied statistics, with a teacher who does not have a great reputation, so I purchased all the volumes in this set, plus his original probability and statistics tutor  The Probability and Statistics Tutor - 10 Hour Course - 3 DVD Set - Learn By Examples! , to get the basics down before I take the class.

This volume covers the basics/core concepts of statistics. There is a little bit of overlap with his older DVD set, because while that one focused on probability some of the principles from statistics are used in probability and vice versa. So things like histograms, mean and standard deviation and variance will all be refresher concepts if you have the old set. But he does get into a lot of new material, some are definitions like Sample and Population which he did not really get into before, the various types of plots and charts, and things like Quartiles and the various theorems that are applicable only to statistics. So it is definitely not a double dip if you have the older set.

Like all his other DVD sets, Jason covers everything in a step-by-step manner. The new layout for his DVDs has been to introduce the concept in one section and then do example problems in the subsequent section(s) on that topic to keep the individual sections of the DVD shorter. In his older sets it was not uncommon to have hour-plus long sections, which could get to be a bit much if you attempted to watch the entire thing at once. In this set the longest overall section was right under a half hour. He rarely, if ever skips any steps in the problems he works through (I don't think he ever skipped any in this set), and even when he does he warns you ahead of time.

Learning style is different for everyone, but I find the way he explains concepts be it in math, physics, chemistry or engineering are very easy to follow, and much better than some of the free material that you can find out there. It is basically a video lecture though, not unlike sitting in a class lecture, but generally more condensed and focused on problems more than it is on the overall theory. So if it is a fit for your learning style, and you are taking any kind of statistics class, I would highly recommend this.

Study Aid Review: The Probability and Statistics Tutor

 

Probability and statistics can be very easy or extremely frustrating depending on how you are taught. I can be the bane of any college algebra student if your class tacks a few weeks of it onto the end of class because it looks like nothing else that was studied the entire semester, and if you have a teacher that is not great at explaining it, it can seem like complete nonsense. It was certainly the hardest part of my college algebra class, and really the only material I never could grasp, so much so that I answered one of the bonus questions on my final "I don't care".

Jason however does a great job breaking the problems down and making sense out of them. Far better than any of the books do, and better than my teacher did. As is his style, he goes through a ton of examples, breaks down what each question is asking for, and how to interpret them so you can easily spot the difference between a permutation and combination, and when using a particular solution method is needed versus another one. Given that the math in many of the problems is extremely easy, at least at the level of the kind of problems encountered in this set (he has since released several more volumes under the title The Statistics Tutor) which tackle more complex problems than this set has, even in the more advanced problems knowing the kind of question it is and the process used to work through it is 95% of the complexity.

I have not taken a regular statistics class so I am not sure how much of that material this covers. I do know it will show you how to do most, if not all, of the problem types you would see in a college algebra class that tacks probability onto the very end of the semester. I will be taking an engineering data analysis class (which is basically just applied statistics) this fall, with a teacher that does not have a great reputation, so I am using this and Jason's other statistics sets to get the basics of the material down. I do however have enough experience with Jason's other DVD sets to know he never covers every topic that a class will expose you to, but goes through the big topics you are most likely to see on exams and quizzes. So while it is not a substitute for going to class, it will give you a good handle on the material and I highly recommend it.

I have used many of Jason's DVD sets. I have been going back to school for an electrical engineering degree. I have used, and reviewed almost all of Jason's courses, from basic algebra, to the advanced engineering material. You have to know whether a DVD will fit your learning style. He basically gives example heavy lectures. He rarely works through any kind of proof material, just focusing on problems, but at the end of the day, it is still him standing in front of a whiteboard doing problems. So if you are a visual and audio learner, it is great. He works through everything step by step and explains everything he is doing for every problem. He rarely ever skips steps and when he does it is only because it is the same thing he has shown in multiple problems up to that point and makes a point to at least tell you what steps he is skipping so you are not lost, unlike a lot of times when books skip them.