“How to solve statistics problems?” is an obvious question students mostly search over the internet.
For many students, it is like a nightmare to solve statistics problems due to various reasons. In order to solve statistics problems correctly, practice is a primary requirement, and you should know how and where to collect data and analyze and interpret it to draw valuable information.
Putting the right formulas to solve the problems is equally important as collecting the data from authentic and reliable sources. If you collect data from random sources, you can not conclude from that data.
So, if you are one of those who are facing problems when solving statistics problems, we are here to assist you.
In this blog, we will provide you with a step by step process of how to solve statistics problems. We will also cover statistical terms and definitions of statistics.
What is statistics?
Table of Contents
“Statistics is a science, not a branch of mathematics, but use mathematical models as essential tools” John Tukey |
Statistics is considered as the science that deals with methods and tools of collection, analysis, Interpretation and presentation of data. Statistics is majorly used for research and study purposes as through stats we can make significant decisions. It deals with both quantitative and qualitative data and structured and unstructured data.
So everyone is scared of statistics and they always search how to solve statistics problems. The general method of solving statistics problems is to write your question then collect data required for solving such a question and lastly you are required to analyse such data and to draw conclusion.
Statistical and non-statistical problem
Let’s know the difference between a statistical problem and non statistical problem.
Question1. How many states are there in India?
Question 2. In which state girl ratio is maximum in India?
What do you understand from these both questions?
Have you noticed any difference?
Let me explain you-
The major difference between these questions is that Question number 1 is non statistical and question number 2 is statistical.
What makes these problems statistical and non statistical?
Four thing or factors make a problem statistical and non statistical that are given below-
- Way to ask the question
- Role of data and its nature
- Way to examine the data
- Types of interpretation you bring from research
Hence the question first is simple and factual and its answer does not need any type of research and collection of data whereas second question need to collect data from all the states, analyze data, research is required and at last we can conclude that which state have the maximum ratio of girls.
Terminologies used in statistics problems –
There are n number of terminologies which are used in statistics this is why it is said that statistics has its own language which you should command first. So if you are searching for How to solve statistics problems then firstly you have to learn the meaning of basic terms used in Statistics. Following are the most essential terms –
Population
When we solve any statistics problem then we are required to collect data from the people who are affiliated with the given question. So we have to decide whom we want to study. Thus, in statistics, people or individuals you want to study or you are studying are called as population. In short, the group of people whom you are studying is the population.
Sample
If you understand the term population then it is very easy to learn samples. The sample is just a subset of the total population. For example your population has 10 individuals then each individual is a sample for your study.
Parameter
The next term to learn on How to solve statistics problems as the name suggests it is the scope of the study. That is the quantitative characteristics of the population you are studying or testing. For example you want to know how many people use Colgate. Then this question is a parameter. So your population and sample and other required details will be based on such parameters.
Descriptive Statistic
Next terminology to learn in How to solve statistics problems is Descriptive statistics.
When you analyze the data after determining the hypothesis and collection of data then you will get certain results on such study and such result is called descriptive statistics.
Procedure – How to solve statistics problems
Determine your Question
The first step to solve the statistics problem is to decide the problem that is the question or hypothetical test. Unless you know the question you can’t process with other steps because this step will decide the parameter and population for your study. This is why this is the first and foremost step in How to solve statistics problems.
Collection of Data
Next step is to collect the data as per your hypothesis. Here you will decide the population and you can use different methodologies of collection of data like questionnaires OR survey etc. It is also a very important step because you can’t get true and correct results unless you have correct data.
Analysis of data
By now you have collected the required data and also you have your hypothesis so your next step in How to solve statistics problems is to analyse the data accordingly. There are various tools to analyse the data like Microsoft Excel, Python, R, etc. So you must be skilled in data analysis.
Interpretation of data
Next step in How to solve statistics problems is to interpret the data you have collected. Point to note here is always remember your questions while interpreting because data speaks a lot so you have to scrutinize in such a way that you can get desired results. After this step you will get the results of your study so lastly you will have to just present the data. And for presentation also there are n number tools and methods which you can use. So presentation of data shall also be up to mark so that you can analyze the data easily and speedily. You can present the data through pie charts, graphs or tables etc.
Statistical formulas
Statistical problems are solved through statistical formulas so the technique to learn such formulas is to break them down. For example if you are solving mean, median or mode or standard deviation you shall be well versed with these formulas then only you can get correct results.
Let’s take a statistics problem and solve it.
Suppose there are 10 students in a class and we are asked to find out the average weight of students of that class. For this we need to know about the weight of individual students so that we can calculate the average weight of those students.
Average weight- We can calculate average weight with the mean formula
Mean = sum of all terms/ total terms
Hence the average weight of students is 47.8 kg
Mode = the frequent term in the list is known as the median.
In the above question 45 is mode because it is repeated three times.
Median= The central term is known as median. But in this question we have ten terms and we have two middle terms.
Now the mean of these two terms is median. But before that we have to arrange the values in any order.
35 40 43 45 45 45 54 55 56 60
Here 45+45/2= 90/2 = 45 is median
Hence to solve statistics problems you should know these formulas or tactics.
Conclusion
In this competitive world, data analysis is the key stream to earn more profits and to beat the competition. Statistics is used for the same as it is the type of science which deals with data analysis and much more. Many people struggle with How to solve statistics problems so this article is inclined to that only. In case, if you need any help with statistics assignment, then you can get the best help from our statistics assignment helper.
In this blog we have also differentiate between statistical and non statistical questions so that you can better understand what statistics problems require.
FAQs-
What are the types of Statistics?
Statistics is mainly of two types-
Descriptive- It just describe what the data shows
Inferential- It helps in generalization of data and draws valuable conclusions.
What are the components of a statistics problem?
- Ask a question
- Gather Data
- Data analysis
- Interpret Results
Which formulas should we know about how to solve statistics problems?
In statistics, we use numerous formulas to solve the different problems. Statistics problems require simple as well as complex formulas to give answers. We have to use formulas of mean, mode, median, and other probability formulas in statistics.