Why Statistics costs more
It is not a markup. Statistics needs a better-than-average command of algebra, and students often reach it without that, so I end up teaching algebra inside a Statistics hour. It also varies by textbook and by instructor. Different books apply the same rules differently, unlike algebra through calculus, which doesn't change from book to book. That demands more preparation and flexibility from me.
How I help
I focus on what the numbers mean: what a distribution is, what a p-value does and does not tell you, why a sample behaves the way it does. Students who understand the ideas can handle the unfamiliar question on the exam.
My AP Statistics students and college intro students are mostly in the same place: they can run the procedures but aren't sure which one to use or what the answer says. That judgment is what we practice.
Topics I work on most
- Sample spaces, probability rules and counting
- Conditional probability, independence and combinatorics
- Random variables, expected value, variance and Chebyshev's inequality
- Discrete and continuous distributions: uniform, normal, binomial (with the normal approximation), Poisson, exponential, Student t, chi-square and F
- Sampling distributions and the Central Limit Theorem
- Confidence intervals and hypothesis tests
- Correlation and regression
- Chi-square tests, ANOVA and multiple comparisons
Straight talk: I know the core of introductory statistics very well, but it isn't something I teach every day, and occasionally I meet a topic I haven't practiced recently. I'll tell you at the start of a session if that happens and what I'll do about it. The list above covers most of what introductory courses reach, and some beyond it.
Rates: In person $90/hour (first hour $45). Remote over Zoom $60/hour (first hour $30). Full rates and travel.