STA 257 -- Probability and Statistics I -- Fall 2002

Unofficial final marks for the course are here. They are sorted by the last 5 digits in your student number.

Term Test:
There will not be any adjustment to the grades.
Summary statistics for grades:
Mean: 46.8/70=67%
Median: 49/70=70%
Standard deviation: 13/70=18.6%
Maximum: 70/70=100%
Term test solutions in pdf

Marks for the term test and first 9 quizzes are here. They are sorted by the last 5 digits in your student number. Students whose mark is a dot did not write the test/quiz. A mark of 999 indicates that valid documentation was received for a missed test. Two tutors had not yet recorded the grades for quiz 9 for their tutorials. For these students, their quiz 9 grade is currently recorded as 111.

Course outline in pdf

Lecture notes:
A copy of the overhead transparencies from Lecture 2 on is available in short-term loan at the Gerstein Library effective Friday, September 19. Ask for the lecture notes for STA257. A copy of the textbook can also be borrowed for 2 hours from the short-term loan desk. Ask for call number 178 for the text and 179 for the student solutions manual.

Where else you can get help with the course material (until Friday, December 6):

• Statistics Aid Centre SS 2133
  Wednesdays 11:00-1:00 (last day: December 4)
  Staffed by one of the course teaching assistants.
• New College 55B (until Friday, December 6)
  Mondays 9:00-1:00
  Wednesdays 9:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00
  Thursdays 9:00-12:00
  Fridays 9:00-12:00
  Staffed by graduate students in Statistics.

Additional office hours before the exam:

Monday, December 9:
10:00-12:00 A. Gibbs SS 6026E
1:00-4:00 Mohammed S. SS 2101

Tuesday, December 10:
10:00-12:00 A. Gibbs SS 6026E
12:00-2:00 Shuying SS 2120
2:00-5:00 Xiaobin SS 2120

Wednesday, December 11:
2:00-4:00 Yan SS 2120

Hanna and/or John will be in New College 55B on Monday, December 9 from 9:00 to 1:00 and Wednesday, December 11 from 9:00 to 4:00

Practice problems:

• Practice Problems 1 For quiz in tutorial on Wednesday, September 18
  Solutions to additional questions from Practice Problems 1
• Practice Problems 2 For quiz in tutorial on Wednesday, September 25
  For quiz on September 25 you can omit questions 10, 13, and 14 from Practice Problems 2. The required material for these questions will be covered in lecture on Monday, September 23. These problems should be completed for Wednesday, October 2.
  Solutions to additional questions from Practice Problems 2
• Practice Problems 3 For quiz in tutorial on Wednesday, October 2
  To do the variance calculation in questions 4.35 from the text and 12 from the additional questions, you will need the properties of variance that we will cover at the beginning of Monday's lecture.
  Solutions to additional questions from Practice Problems 3
• Practice Problems 4 For quiz in tutorial on Wednesday, October 9
  To do questions 2.39, 2.45(c) and additional questions 10, 11, and 12 you will need material that will be covered in lecture on Monday, October 7. (So they won't be covered on the quiz on October 9.)
  Solutions to additional questions from Practice Problems 4
• Practice Problems 5 For quiz in tutorial on Wednesday, October 23 (no quiz on October 16)
  To do questions 5.7(c), 5.8(c), 5.51(c) and 5.67 and additional questions 5(e) and 7(e) you will need material that will be covered in lecture on Monday, October 21. (So they won't be covered on the quiz on October 23 but will be covered on the midterm test. Note that for most of these questions you should do all parts expect the part mentioned above.)
  Solutions to additional questions from Practice Problems 5
  Correction to solutions to practice problems 5: Answer to 5.8(c) from Schaeffer should be 1/3. The upper limit of the integral should be 3/4. Also the exponent on the lambda in the answer for 9(e) should be 3 (not 2). (Correction posted October 25, 3:00 p.m.)
• Practice Problems 6 For quiz in tutorial on Wednesday, November 6
  #12 has been moved to Practice Problems 7
  Solutions to additional questions from Practice Problems 6
• Practice Problems 7 For quiz in tutorial on Wednesday, November 13
  Correction answer to #4: EY=mu/lambda.
  Solutions to additional questions from Practice Problems 7
• Practice Problems 8 For quiz in tutorial on Wednesday, November 20
  Exercise 7 should read that the means are 1/lambda and 1/mu.
  Exercise 4.73 from the textbook has been moved to Practice Problems 9.
  Solutions to additional questions from Practice Problems 8
• Practice Problems 9 For quiz in tutorial on Wednesday, November 27
  Corrections to answers on Practice Problems 9:
  #4: m and n are reversed in answer; X and Y should be assumed independent.
  #6: exponent on y should be beta-1.
  You are not responsible for exercise 6.29 from the text.
  Solutions to additional questions from Practice Problems 9
• Practice Problems 10 For quiz in tutorial on Wednesday, December 4
  Exercise 7.9 uses the fact that often a good estimate of the standard deviation is the range/4. We didn't discuss this, and you're not responsible for this estimate of standard deviation on the exam.
  Solutions to additional questions from Practice Problems 10
  The derivatives in the solutions to 7(a) are incorrect.

Statistics hand-out for material covered in last week of classes
Solutions to problems on statistics hand-out
Corrections to solutions of statistics hand-out:
#5: g'(s)=2(n-1)s/sigma^2, i.e. the s should not be squared in the derivative. The rest of the solution is correct.
#6(b): Should get 4p(1-p)>n/(1+2n) (the "2" is missing in the original solution). Note that n/(1+2n) is now not equal to 1 for large n, however the diagram is still correct, and the parabola is still above the x-axis for p near 1/2, so the answer is still the same.

Practice term tests:

Practice final exam:

Formulae that will be provided on final exam (December, 2002)
Note that a geometric random variable can be defined in two ways: as the number of failures before the first success, or as the trial number on which the first success occurs. The probability function on the formula sheet is for the first way, your textbook uses the second way. Any questions on the exam using the geometric distribution are very clear about what the random variable is measuring in relation to the probability function.

E-mail course instructor: alison.gibbs@utstat.utoronto.ca