Sep 26 2007
Testing in Singapore
the course in Hypothesis Testing is going extremely well this week. We’re ahead of schedule, which means I’ll have time for a nice facilities tour at the end.
I enjoy working with engineers and technical staff here in Singapore. They’re focused on their learning, they are well-prepared, and they interact. A perfect audience for a career facilitator! Even the two marketing representatives in the class have engineering degrees, so there’s no statistics phobia in the room.
Hypothesis testing, or more correctly comparative experimentation, is often the most confusing subject in practical statistics. Why do I need fresh data? Which direction is the test? What does it mean to “fail to reject?” How can we make a mistake, and what are the practical consequences? A more daunting issue for many attendees: How to use statistical software systematically. And what part of the extensive report the program gives is really the Most Important.
Fortunately, there is an underlying, simple strategy to all hypothesis testing. And once that’s made clear, the attendees can make rapid progress. That’s cleary what happened here in Singapore. The first day seemed dangerously slow to a couple of the participants; they were worried the class would last two weeks! However, we will finish early, and now they’re very relaxed about the schedule. The acceleration that repeated practice has given them is amazing, and they can now analyze complex data sets and draw reliable conclusion in just a few minutes. Their confidence is up as well.
Now if there were only a guaranteed way to have them practice on the job, my work would be over…
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