Often, individuals walk into their first statistics class experiencing emotions ranging from slight anxiety to borderline panic. It is important to remember, however, that the basic mathematical concepts that are required to understand basic statistics are not prohibitive for any university. If you don't understand a concept - reread the material, do the practice questions at the end of each chapter, and don t be afraid to ask your instructor for clarification or help. This is important because the material discussed four weeks from today will be based on material discussed today. If you keep on top of the material and relax a little bit, you might even find you enjoy this introduction to basic measurements and statistics.
Statistics are part of our everyday life.
Statistics in and of themselves are not anxiety producing. The idea of statistics is often anxiety provoking simply because it is a tool with which we are unfamiliar. Perhaps an example will clarify this definition. The first thing we would need to do is collect some data. We might have all the nurses on a particular day complete a job satisfaction questionnaire.