Summer Assignment: Using the Blog to Prepare for AP Stat

First off, thank you to those of you who have already emailed me! This is my first year having a class log for emails, and I think it should make the world of last-minute updates and information much easier!

One student asked the following: How should I use the blog to prepare for the first week? We'll be hopping right into our classwork on the first day, and you can anticipate having a quiz within the first few days of school. If you can use this blog to get ahead, you'll only be helping yourself. The course moves quickly; the more familiar you are with our goals and uses for Statistics, the better you will understand each topic.

Here are some tips to use the blog to prepare for AP Stat:

1. To start, look at what interests you the most. Read through some news stories (from any site), check out stats.org, pay attention to the news--just try to get a general idea of what Statistics is all about. This course is totally different than the math courses you've experienced thus far and we'll all be starting from scratch.
2. Listen to the "Stat Raps" (found under AP Statistics in the Classroom Powerpoints link, toward the bottom). Pay attention to the vocabulary used. It might even be a good idea to look at the lyrics and see what words you do and don't recognize, and even use the context of the song to figure out some of the meanings. We will frequently have vocabulary tests next year.
3. Check out ted.org and simply search "Statistics." Watch some of these videos--they're pretty interesting!
4. Specific to the course, you should take a look at the first few chapters of powerpoint slides to get an idea of what we'll be covering. Take this as far as you like--all of the notes (although they will be revised) are there for you to peek at.
5. Look at the different topics for the midterm exam to get an idea of what topics we will cover (Classroom Powerpoints link).
6. Look at the "Stat Tutorials" link to get an overview of any topic; focus on those we'll cover earlier in the year.
7. Use the "Using Your Graphing Calculator Link." We CONSTANTLY use our calculators; the more familiar you are with its use, the easier your life will be. You might want to make sure you know how to enter data in L1,L2, create different graphs (scatterplots, boxplots, and histograms) with your calculator, and calculate "1 Variable Statistics." We'll cover this in class, but you're better off being familiar with the calculator.
8. Look at some of the online practice exams to get a feel for the types of questions and the complexity of AP questions. Try some out--maybe you know more than you think!

If you were to do all of this you'll be way ahead of the game. We've still got a month to go, so you have plenty of time!

I'm currently taking class at UConn--and I have plenty of projects, reading, and homework to do--so I totally understand the burden of summer homework. But I also know you have ample time, so get on it!

I can't wait to meet you all and get started in August!

(Feel free to email me with any questions! fred.carofano@gmail.com)