Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Using Minitab and Excel in the homework

Lowkeydad and I had the same question about the homework: Do we just use Minitab/Excel to make the calculations? Or do we need to do them manually (i.e. with a calculator) and/or show the formula that was used and/or any work?

I emailed the following question to Prof. Selcuk:

Just to be clear...

When we're asked to compute the mean, variance and standard deviation (in 3.27) and the covariance and coefficient of correlation (in 3.43) and all the calculations in 3.61 etc - is it sufficient to use Minitab/Excel to compute these statistics and simply report the results?
His reply:
Yes, you don’t have to go thru each step in the formulas. Be careful with excel though, especially when the sample size is small. This may lead to a different result than in the answer key, and the TA may think that you’ve done something wrong and cut points when grading.

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