Probability & Statististical Data Analysis

Amidst this global pandemic, there were a lot of drastic changes that had to be done. The course outlines included. Since COVID-19 was introduced to the world and was claimed to be a global threat, we students were encouraged to follow lectures virtually. Thus, the complications some students may face. I was not excluded as I found it hard to keep up with the course itself without the help of my peers that have been a great help throughout my studies. So, when the decision to cancel the final examination for this course and replace it with another individual project, I had mixed feelings myself. However, I managed to overcome it by gathering my courage to ask questions to acquaintances that may have much more knowledge regarding this particular course. I had also begun to feel more independent now that i have made so much research myself as well as revising the syllabus. The dataset I ended up choosing which is about beef demand in the United States was not my initial choice. I had another dataset in mind and the beef demand dataset was just a backup plan. However, there was a bit of a problem with the proposal I sent to the lecturer. The lecturer commented on how the variables had no obvious relationship. Thus, there might not be much to talk about. For further understanding, i consulted with the lecturer about it and gradually realised my mistakes. It was indeed a bit difficult since we have not yet cover the later chapters. So, preparing a proposal without that much of an understanding was rough. However, i managed to reflect back on what my mistakes were and start revising more to get a better understanding.

Throughout the completion of this project, i had to do a lot of research regarding inferential statistical analysis. I also had to practice and play around with the Rstudio before actually proceeding with the coding. I have come to realise that Rstudio is very useful especially for variables with a vast number of observations. There were a lot of YouTube videos i had to watch in order to finally get a grip of how to finally code as i admit i am a slow learner myself. Besides that, i also learned the difference between correlation and regression. It was a bit confusing at the beginning but as i went through a lot of examples and exercises, i have finally acknowledged the distinct differences between the two. This project not only helps me understand the chapters better, but it also help me gain extra information along the way that could probably be in great use for the future.

In terms of skills, i had enhanced my programming skill by watching a lot of examples and videos. Moreover, i became more confident and brave in admitting my mistakes as well as asking questions for my own better understanding. I am a timid and shy person which would always depend on my own research or friends for information. However, it has finally come to me that asking the lecturers themselves would definitely ease my work since they give direct explanation on what i am doing wrong. Last but not least, i have become more independent as mentioned before. Though i always do my own research, i feel the need to put an extra effort in doing my work since there won't be friends that can back me up when i do my work.

Overall, this project has helped me in many different ways. Most of all, it made me own up to my own mistakes due to my lack of effort. If I were to ignore the mistakes, i would not have learned this much.

            My group and I have decided to make a little research regarding the usage of social medias among students in UTM for our first project. My prior idea was to compare the activities between the first-year students and the fourth-year or third-year students if it somehow affects the time they spend on social media. Unfortunately, after distributing our survey, we did not get any feedbacks from the fourth year students since we only opened the survey within a week and it was no surprise that we had no connection with the seniors, thus, making it hard to reach them. I also initially thought that by gathering the information, I get to prove that the time spent on social media indeed gives an impact to the students’ time management. This is where the hypothesis testing gets handy. I was in charge of getting the hypothesis testing done. Frankly speaking, it was hard since we have not learned the topic yet. So, I had to do a lot of research on it to finally understand the concept. It was only when we finished the project when we were finally introduced to the topic. Fortunate enough, the due date was extended so there was more time for me to recheck my understanding with the syllabus taught during class. It was also a good thing that we managed to complete most of our tasks for the project before the movement control order. So, it was not really a hassle to get everything done separately especially when it was a group project. Only a few editing parts were left to be done.

There were a lot of research done and it was undeniable that social media is a very wide and popular platform used by many. Thus, making us worry if there were any groups picking a rather similar topic. If so, there would be unnecessary conflicts between groups and would trigger the competitive sides of the teammates. Although I want everyone to do their best in getting the project done, but I would like it better if it is done in a healthy way without comparisons. But since we had the topic in mind for so long, we decided to just go with the topic after asking other groups from the same section regarding their topic. In fact, there were many aspects to observe if we picked the topic. We are netizens as well, so it was easy for us to predict which social media is best for which aspect. However, we thought that others’ perspective would possibly make a difference especially when the respondents have different backgrounds. Business students might be active on social medias to market and advertise their products. Different majors tend to use social medias differently.

All in all, it was a splendid journey along the way of completing the project. It would be a lie to say there were no hardships. However, we managed to settle it and agree to disagree for the sake of our project. My group members were all very dependable and I was happy that we get to complete the project hand in hand. Apart from gaining more knowledge through researching and hands on skills due to Rstudio, I also get to improve my communication skills and enhance our teamwork. Teamwork makes the dream work.