Why people hate statistics - but you don't need to - with Dr Nic

Statistics is a course that many people have to take, and many people find difficult and uninteresting. In this vlog-type talk to camera, Dr Nic works through reasons why people hate statistics, and gives help for learners and teachers on how to stop this happening.
To see all of Dr Nic's videos about statistics go to the website: creativemaths.net/videos/

[@pammorrissey1996]

I'm so happy this was the first video from my stats lecturer! Love the analogy of learning to learn to fish, and the advice for teachers to not give dumb examples. I'm certain I'll be referencing these vids throughout the semester

[@DrNic]

Aww that’s so lovely to hear. I’m really happy that stats lecturers are suggesting these videos.

[@ElizabethHernandez-fx7fq]

I just found your videos today and I'm so grateful. I'm an accounting major and I really hate statistics. I struggle with it so much and I'm typically an A student. I have my first exam this week and I'm very nervous. Your videos seem easy to understand and watch. Our professor does go fast, but she's not a bad professor. I struggle with the terminology. A lot of the times I'm in class and just feel like it's going in one ear and out the other, or over my head. I've made some flash cards and I'm hoping that helps. Our exam this week is on confidence intervals, hypothesis testing & Inference about means and proportions with two populations. I've shared your channel with my class. Hopefully it helps out some other students.

[@JohnSmith-vz4jz]

This video is an encouragement, as a whole, statistics is overwhelming, breaking it down to ten reasons, gives more clarity in a different way of learning.

[@Channelofdk]

Changed roles with my employer and now I deal with statistics which I swore I would never need in real world. But here I am.... and now I love it.

[@DrNic]

I'm glad you are now enjoying dealing with statistics. I never wanted to do statistics either, but once I found out what a real exploration with data can be like, it became much more interesting.

[@somcana]

If you learn how to learn how to fish, then the world is your own ocean. Dr. Nic Petty. #self-learner. You just put to words my attitude and determinations as a self learner. I am working on my masters in epidemiology and you Boosted my confidence so high . I feel normal again. Thanks you

[@berihungebreselasse3653]

It is good perspective Dr. Nic. Actually, I do like learning statistics. Exercising it will help understand it very well. Keep it up !!!

[@Apratim98]

Mam you are amazing...really!! Hats off..

[@sharrartanveer7062]

I was a student of biostatistics. Yes, other students used to hate the subject. My understanding is that people can't relate statistics in real life. I completely agree that teaching method is one of a important reasons for not understanding and relating with real life.

[@williambiggs2308]

Statistics, difficult? What are the odds of that?

[@manictiger]

Which is funny, since it's one of the most real-life applicable math types that exists. Granted, a lot of what I do is ad hoc estimations like "if I spend X money per month on this pointless luxury, my chance of hitting Y networth by Z-time frame gets drastically lowered". Nothing in this universe is an accident. Every little thing, is based on statistical chance. The very fabric of the universe is statistical. If you arrive to work on time 98% of the time when you leave at X, then if you leave at X+15 minutes, your chance of getting there on time is reduced to Y. Nothing is an accident. Nothing is anyone else's fault. You control your numbers. Play the game. You might actually win.

[@spellcasterneo]

I have always been good at math. Math was my favorite subject in elementary school, middle school, high school and college. I'm going for a basic computer technology degree, and I have to take statistics. This course, this one course made me hate math with a passion, more or less, the subject of statistics. I began to examine this fundamentally for a bit. I noticed that all the classes where no point of such was given as why the subject is important, I got "C"s out of. In other words, I did barely enough to pass. Geology, astronomy, and history to name a few. All of the classes that I could see had some relevant benefit (sociology, writing, speech, spanish, psychology, music, calculus 1 and 2, trigonometry, anthropology) I did great and got A's and B's. Statistics is just one of those classes that "they" say is important, but I really see no real relevance. Yes I can see some importance when it comes to analyzing data, but at the end of the day, I don't consider this to be a science, but an art. When I started the course, it was okay; I was understanding some of the concepts and could see real-world applications to what I was learning. However, I believe my interest just completely dipped when I started learning about randomness, and all of the equations associated with such. I thought to myself, "Really? Why?" I had problems about coin tosses, coin flips, and random probability occurrences. For the first time in my life I said, "Why do I care about any of this? Why do I care about a coin or thumb tacks? Why do I even care about their probabilities? " And then the equations got even more nonsensical, in which they became derivates of each other, but the topic was different. For instance, the z score was a very simple formula at first, but when talking about one proportion z test, all of a sudden it got complicated. My brain just completely turned off and my interest was just not there. My professor and the book did the subject no justice either. Statistics also has their own set of names for everything. All of a sudden "bias" is not what you think it means. Null is not nothingness but it means something completely different. And then, I'm thinking to myself, "Who is doing any of this? Who is using any of these equations? Who is asking for this data?" Not to mention, this class takes WAY TOO MUCH TIME FOR NOTHING. One question can take up to 10 mins, and there are 25 of them to do! Seriously? And then, at the end of every problem it is nothing but an estimation! There is no real number provided, but an estimation. Math says "1 + 1 = 2" Nice and simple. Statistics says, "Well the probability of a person picking 1 is 20% and then picking another 1 is 30% factoring in the margin of error and the confidence interval while considering the area underneath the curve according to the standard of error and..." Really! Sorry for ranting, but I don't think it needs to be this complicated. At this point, I think that people are just playing with numbers and coming up with formulas to get guestimations and then presenting these estimations as factual data. If we have to learn it and if it is so important, it needs to be taught in middle school and high school or at least in college for two separate classes.

[@DrNic]

I understand your pain - hence the video. I also agree with much of what you say. I hated statistics when I was first taught it as it was so badly taught and I had no idea what was going on. Starting with probability does not work for a lot of people. In New Zealand it is taught in school, and uses a conceptual approach. Statistics is the second most popular subject in Year 13 after English. Hang in there, and you may find you like it in a while.

[@spellcasterneo]

@@DrNic Thank you for the reply and you are right and I learned this half way through, by doing I am starting to understand it. I just don't like "passing" classes getting some artificial grade when in reality I know that I really don't know the subject. I might just take it again for my own clarity. Thank you! Much appreciated.

[@karag4487]

@@spellcasterneo statistics it's really important in the real world. It's literally applied everywhere, especially with this data world we are living in. But I can understand why you don't like it, everyone had they tasted and opinions but statistics remains really important for the world around us

[@SwainLeungSewingMachines]

I think I am more afraid of maths knowledge/skill rather than hating it, but I decide to challenge it. And I'll win this with so many help of yours and other's. Thank you!

[@DrNic]

So glad to hear that.

[@ExistenceUniversity]

What I like about statistics is it is like detective work, you don't just see an x in the equation and rearrange the letters and numbers until you have a general solution of x, rather, like a detective that starts with no clues and cannot just come in with one tool and solve the case, you actually have to build a case. Is there an association between this clue and that clue? Yes? Well is that because they are independent and this is expected randomly or is there a dependency? There is a dependency? There is! Ok, how strong is that relationship? How certain can I be about that strength? It's very step by step testing if the prime suspect is guilty or innocent and we presume innocents to avoid bias. It's wonderful. It's also exhausting lol

[@DrNic]

I agree. There's nothing like a new database to explore.

[@judeffr]

I feel like statistics are cool but I'm just in capable of understanding (in part because the teacher goes so fast to cover many things are is very curt). I don't want to ask a question in class because I'm way too behind. I just found your videos and have watched them many times because you are clear and entertaining. Thanks to you I think I'm finally understanding more of it. Thankyou!!

[@DrNic]

I am very happy to hear that. Hang in there and it does get easier.

[@yasplad]

I think the type of examples depends on the area in which statistics are being taught. I teach a course for biology students and the examples about bacteria and petal sizes (Iris species database) are very familiar to biology, they are contextualized. The problem is not the exercises, it is the exercises Without contex

[@DrNic]

That is s very good point. I taught business students so tried to use examples from business or their own lives.

[@lmack6596]

YES!!! Thank you :)

[@DrNic]

You're so welcome! Happy to have the endorsement.

[@kayleighgarner]

I love statistics for the information. Reading the numbers of things is cool.

[@DrNic]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@arkarhein2265]

Any books you recommend for design of experiments?

[@briantuitoek648]

i teach programming, and what you are saying feels same here

[@DrNic]

That's interesting. Being able to do something and being able to teach it are quite individual skills and often people who are good programmers don't understand what people find difficult. I love programming.

[@williambiggs2308]

The iris data set resembles a manufacturing process. The lengths and widths form customer specifications.

[@DrNic]

Hi William That is an interesting idea. Mathematically this may well be true. However, as the context is really important in statistics, I would be careful when using one set of data to represent another context. This sounds odd, I know, coming from someone who uses data about dragons in my teaching. ;)

[@williambiggs2308]

@@DrNic Dragonology is worthy of study but usually limited to just one tail experiments. :)

[@DrNic]

lol. Really - I did laugh out loud.

[@TheStarHannah]

Where about in NZ do you live Dr Nic? I need help, do you do tutoring?

[@DrNic]

Hi Hannah I live in Christchurch. I am happy to tutor over Google Hangouts or Zoom.

[@shioda1218k]

Dr Nic's Maths and Stats how much would you charge hourly?

[@matthewmaccallum6978]

The central idea of hypothesis testing is not counter intuitive it is badly explained . There have been cases were the people that programed or made the machine used by a lottery that pays out millions of dollars had very "lucky" relatives that won twice. Everyone strongly suspects that the relatives are not actually lucky including judges and juries.

[@aleayoroa7924]

I like statistics because I think its amibiguity makes it more applicable to life.

[@DrNic]

There are some people like you. ;)

[@tahjsr3072]

I never took statistics but I’m good at math I’m trying to help my girl in class looked at her home work & did not understand a damn lol

[@rishikavashishtha6556]

I study statistics in a college in India. The way statistics is being taught here is an utter mess. We are taught and tested on derivations without any practical applications on it. We meaninglessly learn formulas and apply them into problems. Most statistics we learn isn't application based, but rather mathematical, to prove the RHS and LHS equal. This has made me lose all of my interest in Statistics so much so that I feel like quitting my degree. I want to change it to something else. Our syllabus hasn't been revised for over 50 years and it sucks the life out of me everyday. I have stopped going to college and dread examinations as they throw me into an existential crisis and I can't stop crying.

[@DrNic]

I am so sorry to hear that.

[@petermitchell545]

I hate how fast my instructor is going and how the books don’t organize the content in a way that makes sense. I’m using 3rd edition Pearson Business Statistics and we cover 2-3 chapters a week☹️... I just need them to tell me the formulas that I need to know I don’t want to derive them from other formulas ... I hate algebra

[@DrNic]

Hi Peter. I'm sorry to hear that, and sadly it is not uncommon. For some people it helps to have the formulas derived, but my experience is that for most people it does not help at all. Try to apply what you are reading to a real world context you are familiar with. Hopefully my videos can help you too.

[@sorentutauha4716]

I just can't seem to understand it:(

[@DrNic]

Hi. I'm sorry to hear this. Are you saying you can't understand this video, or that you can't understand statistics? Tell me more.

[@keyamoore8031]

Currently talking Elementary Stat and just don't get it

[@DrNic]

It is a difficult subject. Just keep swimming!

[@redballs]

Statistics to me feel like trick word problems. Torture.

[@DrNic]

I agree. Unless you are doing something meaningful it can all seem so pointless. And sadly it is often taught in a tricky way. What is your end goal that requires you to study statistics?

[@redballs]

@@DrNic To fulfill a requirement for a manufacturing engineering major and make better decisions based on the data from statistical analysis.

[@DrNic]

Yes that really is somewhere that you need to understand variation and use data for decision-making. Good luck in your studies, and use our videos to help you.

[@markelmy5933]

Statistics are like swim suits .. it's not what they display but what they cover up that's of most interest! :)

[@PHILLYMEDIC69]

ur not a doctor

[@DrNic]

I have a PhD, so I have the right to call myself doctor, which originally meant teacher.