How to succeed

This course is not set up like most of the courses you are taking. There are no lectures, and there is nothing to cram the night before. You work through the textbook on your own, then book a sitting and write a test on that module. That puts most of the timing in your hands, which is good, but it also means the habits that get people through a lecture course do not work here.

Find what works for you

There are many different ways to approach the material in this class. At the end of day, what matters is whether you can successfully complete the questions in the test bank. These cover all the concepts in the module and are exactly same questions that appear on the test. So if you can do the practice quesionts, you have both acquired the knowledge you need from the class, and will be able to succeed in class.

How you get to that place is up to you. Here are some options: 1. Read carefully thought the chapters, watch the videos, do the worked examples in the chapters, then do the practice questions, come to the lab sessions for additional help. 2. Watch the vides on 2x speed, pausing to do the worked examples, and then do the practice questions. Come to the lab sessions for additional help. 3. If you have some facility in Excel or R, you could jump right into the practice questions. Use the course AI tutor to explain the concepts you need to know. Come to the lab sessions for additional help. 4. Skim the chapters, start the practice questions, use the AI tutor to tell you waht you missed. Come to the lab sessions for additional help. 5. Ask the AI tutor to summarize things for you, then jump into the practice questions. Come to the lab sessions for additional help.

All these routes lead to the same place, and it doesn’t matter how you get there.

Set a schedule and keep it

In most of your classes the schedule is imposed on you. There is a lecture at 10:30 on Tuesday, so at 10:30 on Tuesday you are doing that course. Here nothing on your calendar makes you sit down and work, and it is easy to let the course slide until a test deadline is close.

Pick the hours you are going to spend on this course each week, put them in your calendar, and treat them like a class you cannot skip. Two or three sittings of an hour or two work better than one long block, because you often get stuck on one small thing and a break is usually what unsticks it.

A deadline is the last day you can sit a test, not the day to aim for. If the deadline is the only thing driving when you work, you will end up booking tests you are not ready for, and a retake costs more time than preparing properly the first time would have.

Work through the book, do not read it

Reading a worked example and understanding it is not the same as being able to do it. The formulas look obvious on the page and much less obvious when you are looking at a blank worksheet and have to decide what goes in the cell. Have Excel or R open while you read. Open the data file, type the formula yourself, get the wrong answer, work out why, and fix it.

It is quite possible to read the PivotTable chapter, follow every step, and then be unable to build one when a test asks for it. The tests ask you to build things, so practise building them.

Do the practice bank before you book your test

Every module has a test bank on this site. It has more questions than appear on any test, and your test is drawn from it.

Work through the questions with the data files open, not in your head, and check your answers against the answer keys. If a question takes you thirty minutes and three tries, that is fine. It is much cheaper to be stuck on a practice question than on a test. Book the test when you can do the bank questions, not when the deadline is close.

Use your marked test

After a test you get your workbook back with a score for each question, comments pinned to the cells where you lost marks, and the answer keys.

Most students look at the score and stop. The comments and the keys tell you what went wrong. Read them, then go back and do that question again properly. If you are retaking the module, this is the most direct information you have about what to fix.

Ask early

The lab sessions are for one-on-one or small group help with course material. Come with a specific thing that is not working rather than a general feeling of being lost, and we can usually sort it out in a few minutes.

If you are stuck at 11pm the night before a test, it is too late for me to help. If you are stuck a week out, there is plenty of time.

A reasonable weekly routine

Block out your course hours before the week starts.
Read the module chapters with the software open, doing each example as you go.
Work through the practice bank questions for that module.
Check your answers against the keys and redo anything you got wrong.
Book the test once you can do the bank questions without looking things up.
After the test, read the comments in your marked workbook, whether you passed or not.

You can move faster than one module a week if you want to. Book the next test whenever you are ready for it.