ETC2520: Probability and Statistical Inference for Economics and Business

5x 4% fortnightly online quizzes, 1x 20% online mid-semester test, 1x 60% final exam.

I have so many things to say about this unit that I don’t even know where to start, so I’ll talk about the good things first before moving on to the bad. If you are a commerce student and really like mathematics, this unit is quite bearable and interesting to study on your own, as it is a fairly thorough run-through of probability and statistical theory from its basics to the more rigorous mathematical content. You start from basic probability and set theory, defining what probability, sample spaces and random variables mean with some examples from card taking and dice throwing. You are then introduced to some common discrete and continuous probability distributions (not an exhaustive list) such as the Poisson distribution, normal distribution, the Gamma function and distribution, Chi-squared etc etc. This unit is fairly simple and intuitive up to here, as many would have learned some of the content from high school. You then go through moment-generating functions and their applications, relationships between different distributions, and joint (bivariate) probability, and this is where the unit kind of gets its infamous impression of being difficult, as the lecturer runs through the content fairly quickly from here. The unit ends with rigorous statistical techniques such as method of moments/maximum likelihood estimation, confidence intervals, unbiasedness and efficiency, and some hypothesis testing, which is mathematically the most demanding, and builds on prior content taught in the unit itself.

Now for the negative aspects of this unit, I know that there’s another review posted here ages ago, but there are quite some changes after they changed the CE for this unit. For starters, there ARE assumed knowledge in this unit which might be completely foreign to some students (like first-years). This includes taking expectations/variances, solving integrals by substitution or by parts and some other techniques (some of it is taught in VCE spesh but not everyone took spesh), basic knowledge of infinite series and approximations(such as the Taylor’s series approx) and the supremum. It is highly recommended that you take a mathematics unit (ETC2440 or MTH1030 are both good) before this to reinforce your knowledge so you don’t get as lost as how I was as a first-year student in this unit. The lectures are extremely poorly delivered with basically incoherent lecture slides for less technical students in BComm, but if you can pick out the content and understand it through online videos you should be fine. Tutorials are in particular VERY important to attend as most applications of the theory taught in the lectures are shown in detail here (no detailed solutions are provided btw). The in-semester assessments are fairly easy, so try to maximise your marks before entering the exam as it has become almost impossible to complete/comprehend since 2016 (when they changed the CE).

This unit is fairly dense and thorough, which might appeal to you as it has appealed to me, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you are not too interested in mathematics. If you are enrolled in BSc then you may consider MTH2222 and MTH2232 (ETC2520 is a condensed version of both), which are taught at a slower pace with greater detail. Nevertheless, not a bad unit if you want to learn, but expect great headaches trying to learn it yourself.

Professor Don Poskitt

1 sample exams with no solutions

2 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture

Wackerly, Mendenhall, Scheaffer, Mathematical Statistics with Applications (7ed).
Hogg, Tanis, Zimmerman, Probability and Statistical Inference (9ed).
Both textbooks are not required but are highly recommended if you wish to do well in this unit as their examples and explanation of the theory is much clearer than the lecture content, albeit having less information.

2x 1 hour lectures, 1x 1.5 hour tutorials

2018 Semester 2

85 HD

1 x 10% test
10 x 2% weekly work
70% exam

Aside from being possibly winning the most excessively long name award, ETC2520 is a fairly thorough course on mathematical statistics. It begins fairly easily walking through venn diagrams and dice rolls to explain basic probability, but brings on some much more intense mathematics throughout the semester as it builds through distributions, the moment generation function, the central limit theorem and hypothesis testing.
I found the proofs to be fairly easy to follow and in general the course was well taught, but I admit it was a while since I did this subject.
Easy HD if you put in some work, and is great for anyone wanting to go into honours as they may need a more rigorous basis in probability than the rest of the econometrics subjects provide.

Dr. Davide La Vecchia, Professor Don Poskitt

Yes, at least one

5 out of 5

Yes

Wackerly, D.D., W. Mendenhall and R.L. Scheaffer, Mathematical statistics with applications (7th edition). The textbook is pretty great, and there were questions assigned out of it when I did the unit so it will be required.

2hr lecture, 2hr tutorial

2013 Semester 2

HD