Tips on How to Become a Top Student in Statistics Class

Approximately 96% of the general population struggles with solving statistics and probability.

If you can attest to experiencing similar struggles, it would be good to know that millions of people, students included, surmount their struggles and go on to perform well in the subject.

Often, you find that making a few changes to how to approach a course can make a huge difference in how you understand the material. Ultimately, this translates to better performance.

Would you like to move from an uninspiring performance to the top of your class? These tips will help you do just that.

1. Distributive vs. Massed Practice

The distributive practice is a study strategy where you break up learning sessions into several short periods. In massed practice, you have fewer sessions, and each goes on for hours at a time.

Distributive practice, once a preserve of cognitive psychology, is increasingly gaining popularity in education.

Used correctly, this method of studying will help you with long term retention of information.  Long term retention means what you have studied is easily accessed in your memory.

This makes it easier for you to recall information during exams, which boosts your performance.

2. Learn Systematically

Stats is much like a math course.

Your coursework will begin from the basics, and you will build on that with each subsequent topic and chapter.

Essentially what this means is that if you move on to a subsequent topic without fully internalizing a current one, you will run into problems.

Work systematically and move at pace with your professors. This is the only way you will be able to flag challenging concepts and topics.

When you run into these difficulties, talk to your instructor, a bright student in your class, or attempt to go over it again in your individual study time to see if you can get a better understanding.

If you fail to do this, you will understand previous topics less and less, and what was once a small issue will snowball into something more complex for you to handle.

3. Study in an Effective Group

Form a group of 3 to 5 people and ensure to study every week without fail, so it becomes a habit.

A verbal interpretation and exchange of concepts with other students go a long way in cementing a better understanding.

This has to be a serious, committed group, however. The duration of group study matters as well.

Less than an hour is considered too rushed to achieve anything meaningful, and more than three hours, people tend to start losing focus and concentration.

In these settings, always take the chance to explain concepts you know and to ask for clarifications for things you have not grasped well. This should help you engage with material better, and in turn, perform that much better.

4. Do Things Practically

Stats is not a course you can learn by reading a textbook start to finish; it’s practical.

Find a good workbook or a textbook that has problems at the end of each topic or chapter and use these to test your knowledge.

Practice everything you learn practically and go back to a topic or chapter whose problems you can’t solve and revise until you get things right.

This ensures not only that you internalize concepts, but that you understand formulas as well.

If you get into the habit of doing this, you will find assignments much easier to complete and that you are able to score highly as well.

5. Be Consistent

Some students set their sights on the final exam, and forget that CATS, assignments and mid-semester exams and quizzes also contribute to their final grade.

Doing this places a lot of pressure on your final exam performance, and should something go wrong, it’s very easy to flop or end up with a grade that pulls your GPA down.

To be on the safe side, bring you’re A-game to all assessments relating to your statistics class. The best thing about these semester-long assessments is that you are not in an exam setting.

This means you have ample time to finish the work. You also have all the time to get a professional to help you attain a guaranteed high grade.

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6. Find Avenues to Engage With Content

If you attempt to learn statistics on the surface of it, chances are you will not get to internalize its content as you should.

This is why it’s important to find ways to engage more with everything you study.

For statistics, look into applications. Applications are how the information you learn is useful outside the classroom.

Doing this brings ideas and concepts into life, so you are not just trying to memorize abstract information.

Try to understand how statistics is important and even how you can use it in your student life.

When you understand information in this way, you find that it negates the need to cram and memorize information.

7. Take Good Care of Yourself

In all your studies, this will be an important point to have in mind.

Your performance and productivity are tied in with how well you are feeling emotionally, mentally and physically.

Research has shown that something as simple as getting enough sleep can significantly improve one’s ability to focus, their levels of alertness as well as their ability to recall information. The opposite is also true.

Excessive, on the other hand, helps release feel-good hormones. If you tend to get exam anxiety, you will find that exercising at around exam time will ease some of this anxiety.

This means you are in a better state of mind as you sit your exams, which might translate into better performance.

Ultimately…

Approaching stats positively and finding ways to unlock your potential is really the secret to performing better in stats.

It might not be easy, but every step you tale towards improving how you study, your productivity and your wellbeing will go a long way in ensuring you gradually improve your performance.

Strive to remain focused on the end goal: graduation, and a long, successful career awaits.