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​What is STAT2372?

STAT2372 is one of two units that provide a foundation in probability and statistics that is imperative to an actuarial student’s academic journey. STAT1371 provides a general introduction to these themes, but they are fleshed out in more detail in STAT2372. All key concepts that are learned in this unit are required for your further studies. The unit develops probability concepts, including discrete and continuous random variables and distributions, independence, covariance and correlation, joint and conditional distributions, moments, generating functions, transformations, order statistics, distributions of sums of independent random variables and the Central Limit Theorem.

What is the most challenging part of the unit?

While there is a learning curve from 1st year subjects, STAT2372 is manageable. I remember when I began STAT2372, my peers in the cohort above prefaced the unit as the hardest subject ever with an extremely low pass rate. In hindsight, they definitely got a kick out of scaring 1st years haha. 

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​How do you balance your academics with everything else?
Along with STAT2372, I studied ACST2002 and ACST2052 along with MATH2010 as my elective. Balancing these four subjects with other commitments was chill and I believe that 1st and 2nd year are one of the more relaxing years in terms of workload. That being said, I do not recommend cramming any of your units and making consistent efforts throughout the semester.
 

General Study Tips/Techniques for Content

​Everyone has different study styles but my study plan during the semester for technical units is as follows:

• Consistently work through the lecture slides (even though they are quite long) and attempt tutorial questions (without looking at answers

• Personally, I was not always up to date, often lagging behind a few weeks but I always gave myself enough time to finish the relevant content a week or two before a mid-sem assessment

• One activity that helped me was summarising concepts and solutions to problems. This would force me to extract the main ideas and demonstrates an understanding of the content​

 

Final Exam study 

For me, I was far more structured in my study for the Final Exam than learning content in general. Again, everyone has different study styles but my study plan leading up to the Final for technical units is as follows:

• Speed-run through the lecture notes again to ensure that I have a good starting point

• Go through all the tutorials again. This should be far easier than the previous attempt as this is revision. I noted down any questions I could not do/didn’t understand

• GO THROUGH PAST PAPERS. Incredibly important to attempt the question yourself. Note down any questions that are not completed or not understood

• Attempt all the questions that were noted down again, crossing them off as you complete them without assistance

And make sure you understand the contents of the unit as you will definitely be using these concepts in the future :)