OPIM 5103 Managerial Statistics Fall 2015
Professor: Robert Garfinkel
Tel: 917-797-2194
email:
Office hours: Tuesdays 6-7 PM in Room 3.82
Text: Black, “Business Statistics for Contemporary Decision Making”. Fifth edition (Wiley).
The course: You will come away from the course with a basic knowledge of statistics, and the ability to use Microsoft EXCEL to solve statistical problems. Also, I hope, with a feeling of comfort with statistical reasoning. The course will include a semester-long regression case. Also, the idea of how to make “optimal” business decisions will be introduced. This is outside of the realm of standard statistics texts.
Class discussion is encouraged. Plenty of time will be left for questions about the material and to go over homework or talk about the cases. Please bring your computers and the text to class!!
Communication: We can communicate in a number of ways.
1. You can reach me by phone or email at the addresses given above.
2. I will be providing you with information, including syllabus, homework assignments, etc. I will do this in two ways. Thus I think I can be sure that everything will get to you.
a. I will post the information on the web at
b. I will have all of your Outlook email addresses on a distribution list (that is ) If you have another email address that you want me to add to my distribution list please send it to me.
Your statistical and quantitative background: I realize that your backgrounds will vary tremendously. Some of you are undoubtedly very comfortable with statistics and quantitative topics in general, while others are not. I will do my best to strike a happy medium. I will not assume any background in statistics and will keep the mathematical notation to a minimum. At the same time I will keep the course rigorous, in the sense that I want you to understand the basis of statistical reasoning. This is much more important than simply learning a number of tests or distributions.
Tentative syllabus.
T Sep 1 Introduction, Summarizing Data. Ch. 2,3.
T 8 Probability Ch. 4, 5
T 15 Simple Linear Regression Ch. 14
T 22 Simple Linear Regression (continued); review for Test 1
T 29 Review session and Test 1 based on material of 9/1 – 9/22.
T Oct 6 Multiple linear regression Ch. 15, 16
T 13 Multiple linear regression (continued).
T 20 Continuous and Sampling distributions Ch. 6,7.
T 27 Continuous and Sampling distributions (cont.); review for Test 2
T Nov 3 Review session and Test 2 based on material of 10/6 – 10/27.
T 10 Confidence Interval Estimation. Ch. 8.
T 17 Confidence Interval Estimation (continued).
T Dec 1 Hypothesis Testing Ch. 9.
T 8 Hypothesis Testing (continued); review for Test 3
T 15 Review session and Test 3 based on material of 11/10 - 12/8.
Tests
There will be three closed book tests that are not cumulative. You are responsible for only those topics covered in class. If a topic was in the readings but not covered in class it won't be on the test!!!!I strongly recommend that you study by going through your class notes and referring to the text only when necessary. Understanding will be stressed at least as much as problem-solving ability. Studying with your classmates can be very helpful!
Homework
Homework problems will not be collected but can be discussed in class. These problems are just suggested. It is not necessary that you do them all! If you find that the computations become onerous just use a subset of the data! Note that the text has answers to selected (mainly odd-numbered) questions at the back.
Please bring your text to class every period! We will especially need the tables at the back of the book. In addition they will be useful in going over homework problems.
Grades: Test 1 (33.3%), Test 2 (33.3%), Test 3 (33.3%)
Academic Integrity
The School of Business faculty strongly believe that academic integrity is a cornerstone in the educational process. All students should familiarize themselves with the rules and regulations found in the student code ( )
"A fundamental tenet of all educational institutions is academic honesty; academic work depends upon respect for and acknowledgement of the research and ideas of others. Misrepresenting someone else’s work as one’s own is a serious offense in any academic setting and it will not be condoned.
Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, providing or receiving assistance in a manner not authorized by the instructor in the creation of work to be submitted for academic evaluation (e.g., papers, projects, and examinations); any attempt to influence improperly (e.g., bribery, threats) any member of the faculty, staff, or administration of the University in any matter pertaining to academics or research; presenting, as one’s own, the ideas or words of another for academic evaluation; doing unauthorized academic work for which another person will receive credit or be evaluated; and presenting the same or substantially the same papers or projects in two or more courses without the explicit permission of the instructors involved.
A student who knowingly assists another student in committing an act of academic misconduct shall be equally accountable for the violation, and shall be subject to the sanctions and other remedies described in The Student Code."