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Where do I find help for homework assignments

  • 1.  Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 05-28-2018 14:54

    Howdy, 

    I just joined the ASA community. so I am totally new. 

    Currently, I am studying statistics in Belgium and would like to know where to ask questions related to my assignments and homework to this community. 

    Are there any rules I need to follow for doing this? 
    Is there a specific place on the website dedicated to this? 


    Appreciate the answers and any help you can offer. 

    Have a nice day, 



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    Donald Van Marcke
    KU Leuven
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  • 2.  RE: Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 05-29-2018 14:15

    Homework assignment help is controversial. Many will not help on homework assignments. Many can spot such questions fairly easily, since the problems are often simplistic.

     

    Why do many object to helping on homework?

    1) If the help is too extensive, the helper is basically committing academic fraud. Many find this uncomfortable.

    2) The teacher is paid to assist the student. If there are questions about assignments, the teacher should be asked.

    3) In advanced classes, the student is asked hard questions to force them to solve these problems. If others solve the problems for the student, this is really cheating the student of an opportunity to learn.

    4) A teacher needs to know about lessons that are not understood.

     

    For these and other reasons, many will not answer homework questions.

     

    Paul A. Thompson, Ph.D., PSTAT®   

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  • 3.  RE: Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 05-29-2018 15:41
    I always asked the professor teaching the course or his teaching assistant.  They always appreciated the fact that I was interested and also appreciated finding out if a question was ambiguous.

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    Emil M Friedman, PhD
    emilfriedman@gmail.com
    http://www.statisticalconsulting.org
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 05-29-2018 17:17
    Hi Donald-

    Welcome to the ASA Community. 

    In terms of your question about help and/or questions on homework, I would suggest that this is likely not the appropriate forum for that. Generally you will find participants asking for opinions related to their professional work, ideas they are working on,  new (and old!) areas of statistics, ASA political activities, and so on.

    Though I can only speak for myself, I do not wish for the forum to turn into a homework Q&A, as there are already good forums for such things, for example: 
    https://stats.stackexchange.com/

    However, questions about your research, statistics careers, etc. are always welcome...or if you are particularly stuck on a problem, no doubt someone here may be able to point you in the right direction.

    Cheers.

    --
    Chad L. Cross, PhD, PStat(R)
    Biostatistician



    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 05-31-2018 21:11
    Here are two sources that may provide some assistance, but not work your assignments for you.


    www.wolframalpha.com/ This site will give an example of computation, say, for sample standard deviation, does computations and along the way provides information on concepts.


    http://www.khanacademy.org/ Here you find videos on a lot of topics in addition to math and statistics. Since they are videos, broadband (or at least high speed internet) is necessary. The videos obviously will not do any work for you, but they may explain concepts a bit differently than you experience in class or in your book.

    In long years of teaching math and statistics, it became obvious that all some students needed was a slightly different explanation in order to see the light.

    Hope this is of assistance

    Dennis Robbins


    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 06-01-2018 16:47
    Dear group:  There a number of professional tutoring agencies for nearly any subject and certainly for math and statistics.  They are not cheap but they are usually one to one and can be  at any level.  For example varsitytutors.com is a national tutoring agency with tutors all over the USA.



    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 06-01-2018 14:41
    Try CrossValidated.com, a Stack Exchange discussion board for statistics and data science.  The postings are more tactical-you can look up specific methods and concepts.  However they will not do your homework!!   Also realize that statisticians have their own viewpoints so you might see disagreement on apparently simple questions.   Remember we are all dealing with uncertainty.

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    Georgette Asherman
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 06-04-2018 16:06
    One other issue to consider is that there are often multiple opinions as to what the correct answer is. 

    When I took modern algebra  we used a well known textbook. The only way we could figure out some of the "answers" to the problems was to do a web search. For one question, we found 3 different answers in notes from math profs at Ivy League schools and MIT. The question was a "Prove A is a subset of B." type problem. One prof said you can't and used a mathematical "proof" to so it. Another used a different mathematical "proof" to show it was. The third said, "It may be, or it may not....." 

    In that case who is correct? MIT, Harvard or Yale?

    The answer was, no one in my class. Our "proofs" were wrong. I showed this prof the 3 web sites. He wondered where we got our "non-sense" from. I even went to the authors web site. Turns out the author, my prof, the other professors couldn't agree on the "correct" answer.

    So, what do you do then?

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    Andrew Ekstrom

    Statistician, Chemist, HPC Abuser;-)
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 06-05-2018 15:30
    The issue appears to be what happens when there are several answers?  In math, in statistics, and indeed  in Life  there are often several answers.  For examples in mathematics, there are ill-posed problems, and what one does is consider and report the variety of  possible answers.  In fact optimization problems may have many solutions and it is the alternate solutions that are interesting.

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    Lawrence Lessner
    Research Scientist and Retired
    Institute of Health and the Environment, SUNY, Albany
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 06-05-2018 16:37
    If what you imply by "Help" with homework problems is actual solutions of the problems, in most schools and countries such "Help" is  considered to be cheating and should be discouraged.  If by "Help" you imply "Explaining" the problem if there is any ambiguity, you should go to the instructor or teaching assistant for the course.  They should be more than happy to do so.  If they are not, they should not be teaching the course. When I taught both undergraduate and graduate courses, my TAs and myself had set hours for the students to come see us but never with any request to actually solve the problems. Just remember, you learn more in mathematics, statistics, physics, and other branches of science by solving problems rather than listening to simple lectures on the general topics. If one buys a solution manual through improper source, the person will never learn.

    Ajit K. Thakur, Ph.D.
    Retired Statistician



    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Where do I find help for homework assignments

    Posted 06-05-2018 15:07
    Hi Donald,

    When I was a full-time college student, Schaum's Outline series were very helpful in mathematics and engineering courses.  There are some books in the series for statistics courses.  Schaums is structured with chapters with key points and lots of practice problems.

    Check out your local college bookstore and see if Schaum's outlines books are available for your courses.  If not, see if you can order a Schaum's outline online.

    Link to Schaums outline on amazon.com
    https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=schaum+outline+series&tag=geminipcstand-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=33778620237&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_23ovm9v3o9_e

    McGraw-Hill publishes Schaums Outline Series.  Here's a website where you can search for the outlines for the courses that you are taking.
    https://www.mhprofessional.com/schaum-s



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    Brandy Sinco, BS, MA, MS
    Statistician and Programmer/Analyst
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    Original Message


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