jeff@samna.UUCP (jeff) (03/16/90)
In article <1990Mar10.000207.8509@aqdata.uucp> sullivan@aqdata.uucp (Michael T. Sullivan) writes: >> I would also require one of the following classes: >> Statistics (1) >> Logic (1) I disagree. Get rid of statistics. My own experience (and I've talked to a few others who agree) was that statistics consisted of learning a whole bunch of silly formulae and how to plug your numbers into them. There didn't seem to be any (hmm ... rather than "any", how about "enough to make it worthwhile") generally useful principles to be learned. I considered this to be a complete waste of time. I don't remember any of the formulae now - in fact I didn't remember them three months after the course was over. So, if I ever need to use any of the formulas, I'll have to go look them up anyway and I could have done that just as easily without wasting a semester on the course. Jeff
sullivan@aqdata.uucp (Michael T. Sullivan) (03/17/90)
:From article <211@samna.UUCP>, by jeff@samna.UUCP (jeff): > >>> I would also require one of the following classes: >>> Statistics (1) > > I disagree. Get rid of statistics. My own experience (and I've talked > to a few others who agree) was that statistics consisted of learning > a whole bunch of silly formulae and how to plug your numbers into them. > There didn't seem to be any (hmm ... rather than "any", how about > "enough to make it worthwhile") generally useful principles to be learned. I went to a school that was on a quarterly calendar. One quarter of statistics was fine for laying a good, useful foundation in statistics. We CS majors actually had to take two quarters but the first quarter could be considered more "useful" than the second. -- Michael Sullivan uunet!jarthur!aqdata!sullivan aQdata, Inc. sullivan@aqdata.uucp San Dimas, CA +1 714 599 9992