Welcome to Mathematical Statistics (MATH-UA.0234)! This syllabus contains important information regarding course policies and procedures.
While participation in and engagement with the course is necessary, I recognize that not everyone has the same learning needs. I am happy to work with you directly, or with you in conjunction with the Center for Student Accessibility (CSA) to accommodate your individual needs. This includes accommodations for religious/cultural holidays, learning needs, sickness, etc. Please reach out to me with any concerns.
Grading is broken down as follows:
Numerical grades will be converted to letter grades using the following thresholds:
| Cutoff | 93% | 90% | 87% | 83% | 80% | 75% | 65% | 50% |
| Grade | A | A- | B+ | B | B- | C+ | C | D |
These thresholds may be adjusted based on the final grades, but they will only be moved down; i.e. any changes can only bennefit your final grade.
Active participation in the course in mandatory, and you are expected to attend all lectures. There are many ways in which you can participate which will earn you participation points. To earn the full 15% participation, you must earn at least 15 points over the course of the semester. Additional points will not translate to a higher score. If you earn 10-14 points you will receive 10%, and if you earn 5-9 points you will receive 5%. Less than 5 points will receive 0%.
The bar for participation points is relatively low. For instance, if you attend class and participate in breakout groups and present your group’s answers one time, you will earn full credit. Alternately, you could participate in breakout groups and attend office hours 3 times and get full credit.
However, a good faith effort is required, and trying to cheat the system will result in penalties.
You are responsible for keeping track of your participation and logging it in the participation assignment on Gradescope. It is recommended to log as you go so you don’t forget when you particpated.
You are highly encouraged to work with peers on the homework, but you must write up the solutions on your own. See the section on Academic Integrity for more information.
The content in lectures will be self-contained but will mostly follow: All of Statistics by Larry Wasserman. A number of homework problems will be taken from this text.
A free PDF download is available to NYU students: here.
For a more in-depth text you can reference: Statistical Inference 2nd edition by Casella and Berger.
Please see the general NYU policy: https://www.nyu.edu/about/policies-guidelines-compliance/policies-and-guidelines/academic-integrity-for-students-at-nyu.html
Any violations of the NYU or course policy on academic integrity may result in punishment. Depending on severity, this could include receiving a zero on the homework, quiz, or project, failure of the course, or being reported to the University.
The general rule of thumb is that you must write up the solutions yourself and you should be able to explain anything you turn in. This is particularly important because the quiz problems will be very similar to the homework problems. Working with friends/classmates
As noted in the syllabus, you are encouraged to work together with peers. This not only helps to cut down on the workload, but strengthens your own understanding of the topics. This is because explaining concepts forces you to engage with them in a deeper way, thereby building a better understanding of the material.
However, you must still write up your solutions on your own, and you should understand everything you write. For each assignment, you must include who you worked with (first name+last name). Failure to do this is plagiarism and may be penalized.
Figuring out how to effectively search for information on the internet is an extremely useful skill. At the same time, you will eventually come across problems without solutions, and without having developed the proper problem solving skills, it will be much harder to come up with a solution. To balance these two possibilities, you are allowed to use the internet to search for solution to a problem after (i) you have been to office hours or used the discussion board to ask about this problem, and (ii) you have spent at least 24hr on the problem after office hours/receiving a response on the discussion board.
If you use the internet or other external sources, you must cite the source and include a description of how you used the source. Failure to do this is plagiarism and will be penalized.
Quizzes are to be taken individually without aid. You are not permitted to discuss the content of the quiz with anyone who has not yet taken the quiz (e.g. because they had previously notified me of an absence). You are encouraged to discuss the quizzes with anyone who has already taken them.