Statistics ... Smatistics!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009 at 6:52PM Real tired today, I mean mentally drained. Spent a good few hours studying the statistics of a project I am involved in. The long and short of it is my non-familiarity with SPSS. Most of the data I have were actually kept in a program called Filemaker Pro. It is a program written by Apple, and me being a MacHead, finds the flow to be logic and easy to use. For analysis, I just convert the data I needed into spreadsheet and paste them into SPSS. That's where the problem started. I manually tabulated the 2x2 (contingency) table, but just cannot analyse them in SPSS.
The morning was not made easy by the disappointment of United only sharing the spoils while letting in two away goals in the Champions League last night. Now their task is clear, to win in Porto! By hook or by crook!
After a day of prodding and asking around, I think I am getting there. So back to more statistic tonight.
Today, I had lunch with one of my student that did not make it through the exam. He has to defer for the next six months. His class will start next week. No rest for the wicked I suppose. He told me that he met the Professors yesterday and this morning for some feedback. He reckoned that he did badly in the short cases. One thing I am glad is that he accepted the result and is ready to move on and pass the exam the next time around. Talking to a few of the students, I got the feeling that the process of announcing the exam results could have been better. It is not the wait or the venue, but the fact that those who failed only found out when their names were skipped during the announcement. I think a courtesy phone call or a gentle prod to take them out of the room may be a bit more classy. Something I will talk with others in the future I am sure.
Since the main parking lots have been filled by the time I drove to work today, I had to park on the monkey hill, walking through sixth college on the way in. Going home, I bumped into at least three of the students packing their stuffs away. A quick look on Facebook showed a few of them having a whale of a time, some of them in Phuket! Great stuff! I am also planning to go on a weekend break to Genting as a family. Looking forward to that, but only after the report is sorted. I'll send you guys a postcard!
Examinations, SPSS in Diary
Reader Comments (3)
enjoy the weekend boss,..
ya, dr!! i think, they should tell them earlier....it's very sad...i think, no one can really enjoy in the lecture hall though being announced as pass...
Point noted