Reflections

Lim Hui Ting

At the start of the semester, I have to admit that I was completely lost in the world of statistics. I felt like I was thrown in a cauldron of formulae and SPSS data, and had to put in immense efforts to put myself in the right direction. Thanks to the school lectures and tutorials, and help from my coursemates, the information in the coursebook slowly made sense to me. This project greatly enhanced my understanding of statistics as well. It was challenging, especially in the beginning when I had no clue how to go about with the project. Nevertheless, together with my project mates, we conducted the data collection very successfully and that was a great boost for morale. However, we hit a bump after we collated our data and realized that our primary hypothesis had no correlation! Luckily all was not lost. We took Miss Chia’s advice and went a different direction with our secondary hypothesis, and that worked out well. All in all, it was a great experience that opened my eyes to all the intricate steps that matter in data collection. Needless to say, I have also gained newfound respect for statisticians because I never knew there was an amazing amount of things to account for and take note of in the entire process of collecting data. Kudos to all statisticians out there!

Sabree Abdul Rahim

I had always thought statistics to be a boring and mundane subject, but when I went through this module, I realise that it was important especially when it comes to collating data and interpreting them.  It started off as a very simple concept at first: collecting 2 data variables (Height and Blood Pressure). In my honest opinion, the collection of data was by far the easiest part. The hard part was trying to interpret the data and coming up with a hypothesis for it. Fortunately, with the guiding hand of our lecturer, Ms Chia, we are able to come up with a suitable hypothesis for the results which we have gathered. Thus, our efforts were not in vain. Aside from the collection and interpretation of the data, this module has taught me a valuable skill with which I can use in the future, such as for the Final Year Project. The skills that I have learnt in this module such as the understanding on how to use SPSS programme will surely come in handy whenever I am doing future group projects. All in all, it had been a fun and interesting learning experience going through this module and this project with my group members.  

Nur Fadilah Mahyudin

Learning Statistics again in my Poly life reminds me of my JC days when I was first exposed to the world of Statistics and got to know about Hypothesis Testing, Probability etc. during H1 Maths lessons. I always look forward to learning this particular module as it amazes me that certain concepts like Pearson's R can help me solve questions such as, "Is there a relationship between a person's height and weight?" I am so thankful that my teammates and I were given the opportunity to apply what we have learnt from this module to come up with a project that was worth every minute spent on it. The collection of data from 30 subjects was by far the easiest task and generation and interpretation of the graphs and tables were made easy with the use of the brilliant SPSS software. However, we did face a hiccup when our hypothesis fail to prove that there is a relationship between a person's height and blood pressure. Nontheless, Ms Chia gave us the reassurance that all hope was not lost when she guided us to come up with an alternative hypothesis. The end result of this entire project gave me a sense of satisfaction that all the hardwork that my teammates and I have put in was worthwhile. For once in my life, I could be a mini researcher and I've learnt to appreciate statistics' journals better whenever I come across them in newspapers or the internet =)   

Tan Xin Hui

“Lymph node removal not needed for some breast cancer patients”
“Coffee may help protect against liver cancer”
“About 90% of Singaporeans are lactose intolerant to varying degrees”

Headlines like these usually capture my interest and I’m always fascinated by how the researchers in the studies managed to get a sufficient number of participants and how much time they would have to spend to come up with these conclusions. The collection of data for our statistics project was rather smooth as we worked well together and had the subjects and equipment that we needed, but it made me ponder upon the difficulties that researchers faced in real-life. The effort and time that some spend trying to prove a hypothesis may eventually come to naught (somewhat similar to what happened to us when there was no significant relationship between height and blood pressure. Ah well =/ ), or it may be difficult to find willing participants to take part in the project in the name of science. Nonetheless, I’m glad I had the chance to play the role of a researcher and it really makes me appreciate the effort that has gone into the studies that I read about in the newspapers.




Chai Yan Wei (Jodie)

The whole module was quite challenging yet fun at the same time. The fun part was to really investigate and conduct the experiment with our coursemates.  The conducting of experiment went on very smoothly and was successful. We chose to conduct our experiments during our break time as our coursemates were all in a relaxed mode which was crucial for our blood pressure experiment. The challenging part was probably the theory part. I was never good at statistics however the statistics book really aid in my understanding for statistics. I was especially thankful for the book gave step by step tutorial on learning theories like how to do a histogram etc. The book made statistics seem so much easier!  I am sure that statistics will help me in the future with other projects especially the year 3 final project. Overall, I had benefitted in many ways through statistics module.

Tan Yi Xuan

Everything starts from an idea. At first sight, the project seems simple enough with just data collection, using spss to generate the findings for analyze. Yet, during the execution, I realized there were many small little details to work on, as these little discrepancies would alter the test results and thus the credibility would be affected. Such examples would include the calibration of the tools used such as sphygmomanometers and measuring tapes. The choice of candidates was also important in order to have a good sample size, as this would determine the variables and the constants. Unfortunately, (to my horror!) the test results did not coincide and we had to go back to the basics to look at the hypothesis, the data and to make changes from there (looking for the silver lining!) and eventually the task was completed. The final analysis was completely different from what we had initially planned, yet the twists and turns of the event had made me benefit tremendously from this project. It has taught me that it takes determination and preservation to prove a hypothesis. Good knowledge on statics and spss will help to maximize the interpretation of the data and we may be able to derive more relationship from it. It is a great pleasure to work with good team mates whom we can get together to brainstorms for ideas and solutions and with Ms Chia's help, these have definitely enable me to get more comfortable in understanding statics. So for next time, I will be able to appreciate better of the statistical data presented in the journals, rather them brushing them away as plainly numbers and figures. :)