Announcements

May 11 (11:59 PM)

I got the grades submitted tonight. This semester's class was something of a low-variance class --- fewer really bad performances, and also fewer really good ones. Here is the distribution of letter grades (not counting one student who quit attending rather early in the semester, but never bothered to officially get out of the class):

• 1 A+,
• 3 A,
• 5 A-,
• 2 B+,
• 4 B,
• 4 B-,
• 3 C.

May 4 (2:44 AM)

In the 2nd paragraph of the What to Study section of the final exam web page I had Problem 1 in two places where it should have been Problem 2 --- but I have now corrected the mistake. (I'll add a bit of happy news in that I won a poker tournament tonight having around 50 or 60 players.)

May 2 (4:11 PM)

I added information about the times and the location for my extra weekend office hours to the final exam web page.

Apr. 25 (12:55 AM)

I added a lot of information about the final exam on the final exam web page. (My guess is that some of you will find the exam to be not so difficult --- I expect a few scores of either 100 or very close to 100.)

Apr. 21 (1:49 AM)

I posted a link to HW #6 on the homework web page. (I was feeling so loopy due to allegy problems (and allegy medicine) that I forgot to do this after class like I said I would.)

Apr. 17 (4:13 AM)

Here is a summary of the scores on HW #4:

• 8 students earned a score of 20,
• 4 students have earned between 18.3 and 19.3 (inclusive),
• 3 students have earned between 15.3 and 16.8 (inclusive),
• 4 students have earned between 13.65 and 14.45 (inclusive),
• 3 students have earned between 5.4 and 12.25 (inclusive).

Here is a summary of cumulative HW points earned so far:

• 10 students have earned between 64.05 and 69.35 points,
• 2 students have earned between 60.5 and 62.85 points,
• 4 students have earned between 54.7 and 56.35 points,
• 3 students have earned between 49.15 and 51.25 points,
• 3 students have earned between 31.1 and 44.3 points.

(I'm not counting students who seemed to have discontinued the class, or who are officially auditing the class.)

Apr. 16 (1:17 AM)

I created a web page describing my summer course. About 15 people will need to register in order for the class not to be canceled --- so far only 5 are registered. If you want to take the class you should register by May 19 since I will request that a decision be made about whether or not to cancel the class about that time.

Apr. 5 (5:21 AM)

I corrected the 2nd useful fact given with the 2nd problem on HW #4 (so you might want to print a new copy of HW #4). Here is a summary of the HW scores so far:

• 10 students have earned between 46.15 and 49.35 points,
• 4 students have earned between 42.15 and 44.05 points,
• 7 students have earned between 31.95 and 39.1 points,
• 3 students have earned 25.7 points or less.

Mar. 24 (2:20 AM)

I posted a link to HW #5 on the homework web page. It's a relatively short assignment. (Note: Don't get confused about the due dates. HW #3 is due this coming Tuesday, HW #4 is due two weeks later, and HW #5 is due two weeks after that. (When I couldn't do computer work when I lost my internet connection on Tuesday and Wednesday, I spent the time getting ahead in making up your homework assignments.))

Mar. 23 (6:02 PM)

I posted a link to HW #4 on the homework web page. (I meant to get it posted after class Tuesday night, but I lost my internet connection, and then had more connection problems on Wednesday.)

Mar. 14 (11:04 PM)

Important: For the 2nd problem of HW #3, I had a mistake until just a few minutes ago (although hopefully you realized what was wrong). Instead of referring to a Bayes estimate based on the squared-error loss function, the desired estimate is the one which results from using the given LINEX loss function. So find the posterior pdf and then use the plan of attack indicated in the comments on the homework assignment to find the Bayes estimate based on the loss function introduced in the problem.

Mar. 8 (2:10 AM)

I will hold a Q&A session in our regular classroom on Tue 3/14 starting at 7:20. *** Thanks much to those of you who sent me a "get well soon" e-card. *** For those of you who are fascinated with NCAA basketball, you might want to take a look at a web page I created pertaining to the RPI. GMU's AD is serving on this year's Selection Committee for the men's tournament, and he asked me for my thoughts on the RPI, so that he could share them with other members of the Selection Committee (and also find out if I saw any "weaknesses" in the RPI which GMU could exploit in the future). So I created a web page with my initial conclusions on it, and I plan to add more to it later this week (or else create another web page on a related topic).

Feb. 23 (9:28 PM)

Last night I was having a horrible time editing the file for this web page and it came out all jumbled up. (I don't know what caused the problem.) So now I have corrected the announcements below that may have looked somewhat screwy over the past 20 hours.

Feb. 23 (1:46 AM)

I posted a link to HW #3 on the homework web page. Please note that HW #3 isn't due until March 28 and it is based on material that I'll mostly cover in the 7th class meeting (12 days from now). I just wanted to get ahead in making up the assignments, and so I created HW #3 and posted it way ahead of when I needed to.

Feb. 10 (6:03 AM)

I posted a link to HW #2 on the homework web page.

Jan. 29 (10:04 PM)

I posted a link to HW #1 on the homework web page.

Jan. 19 (12:59 AM)

I finished altering this web site, converting it from last spring's version to one pertaining to the Spring 2006 offering of the course. Please take time to read the syllabus rather carefully. Since I'm teaching two large graduate level classes this semester, I'll expect students to comply with all of the stated rules and procedures. While you're here, you might be interested in seeing the distribution of grades from the 2002 to 2005 offerings of this course. The distribution of grades for the 2002 class is

• 9 A,
• 4 A-,
• 7 B,
• 3 C,
• 1 F,

distribution of grades for the 2003 class is

• 3 A+,
• 6 A,
• 4 A-,
• 4 B+,
• 3 B,
• 1 B-,
• 3 C,
• 2 F,

the distribution of grades for the 2004 class is

• 3 A+,
• 2 A,
• 5 A-,
• 4 B+,
• 5 B,
• 1 B-,
• 3 C,
• 1 F,

and the distribution of grades for the 2005 class is

• 5 A+,
• 3 A,
• 9 A-,
• 5 B+,
• 4 B,
• 1 B-,
• 3 C,
• 2 F.

For this course, I tend to give a larger percentage of grades below B than I do for other graduate courses. Very often the poor grades are due to students taking this class without properly mastering the prerequisite probability material. If you are not good enough at probability and calculus, then I suspect you're going to have a difficult time getting above a C or F in this class.