MIS 301, Statistical Analysis for Business
SYLLABUS, SPRING 2013, Schedule: 21876
Class Hours: TTH 9:30am-10:45pm
Classroom: GMCS-324
Instructor: Bongsik Shin, Ph.D
Office: SS-3118
Email: bshin@mail.sdsu.edu
Office Hours: M (5:30 pm – 6:30 pm), T (11:00 -12:00 pm), or by appointment
General BSBA Goals
BSBA students will graduate being Effective Communicators, Critical Thinkers, Able to Analyze
Ethical Problems, Global in their perspective, and Knowledgeable about the essentials of
business. This class contributes to those goals through its student learning outcomes.
Course Overview & Learning Objectives
This course is to learn fundamental statistical techniques and how they are applied to various
decision-making situations. For this, the course covers key concepts and analytical techniques of
statistics. Upon completing this course, you should be able to
1. Conduct exploratory data analysis
2. Communicate the results of statistical analyses in tables and figures.
3. Apply probability theory in decision-making situations.
4. Use a sample to make a statistical inference about a population.
5. Formulate hypotheses for decision-making and research.
6. Test hypotheses using various statistical techniques including sample t-tests, analysis of
variance, correlation, and regression.
Required textbook: Basic Statistics for Business and Economics (8th Edition), McGraw Hill by
Lind, Marchal, and Wathen
General Class Policy

Although not part of course grading, attendance is strongly encouraged. There is a
correlation between class attendance and student performance. Especially, students
struggle with theory-based test questions after missing classes.

Course information including the syllabus, lecture notes, and exam scores will be updated
on Blackboard. Students are responsible to visit Blackboard frequently to be updated on
the class progress and report discrepancies immediately.

Students are required to turn off all laptops and cell phones before the class starts. Any
student using them during the class will be asked to leave. Also, students are not allowed
to use a cell phone as a calculator during the test.

Cheating will not be tolerated. A student caught giving or receiving assistance to/from
another student(s) during an exam will be asked to leave and will receive an F for the
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course. Every case will be reported to the Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities
for a possible disciplinary action.

Please do not chat with classmates during the class and also do not pack up early. These
behaviors disturb the class.

To be fair to all students in final grading, individual extra-credit opportunities will NOT
be provided. Also, there will be NO artificial jack up of a final grade because of personal
reasons.

Class withdrawal: Once the official deadline passes, students will not be allowed to
withdraw due to low test scores. Also, students are not given an incomplete grade due to
poor class performance. Students are encouraged to visit undergraduate business advising
center to consult if such situation rises.
Quizzes



To encourage class attendance and better class preparation, there will be unannounced
quizzes throughout the semester. Each quiz will have one multiple-choice, computational
question. For this, students will be pre-assigned homework questions from a covered
chapter.
Students should always carry a Scantron (Form No 815-E) and a calculator to prepare
for the ad hoc quiz.
The chance of having a class quiz gets higher as the semester progresses.
Tests

There are four exams — the fourth exam being the final. All exams must be taken at their
scheduled time and at the course venue. No early or late examination is allowed. All
students who are taking the test at the DSS center (594-6473) should see the instructor.
 Lectures and lecture slides define the test scope.

The formula sheet at the end of the textbook will be handed out on the test day. The
formula sheet will be reused to save trees, so please keep it CLEAN. No other cheat sheet
or summary sheet is allowed during the test.

There will be 15 multiple-choice questions (5 points each), totaling 75 points for each test.
The test lasts 60 minutes (4 minutes for each question). Students are required to bring a
Scantron sheet (Form 882-E).

Tests will include both conceptual and computational questions. Students are allowed to
use a calculator of his/her choice during an exam and is allowed to write on the test (but
NOT on the formula sheet) to solve questions.

The RedID (NOT the driver’s license) should be deposited to take a test.
Grading
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

Score distribution:
Midterm exam 1 ---------------------Midterm exam 2 ---------------------Midterm exam 3 ---------------------Final exam ----------------------------Quizzes --------------------------------Total ------------------------------------
75 points
75 points
75 points
75 points
+
300+ points
Final grades are curved according to the following approximation:
A A- B+ B
BC+
C
C- D+ D D- F
4% 5% 7% 9% 11% 17% 17% 11% 8% 6% 3% 2%

All marketing majors should receive at least a solid ‘C’ to pass this course. When it
comes to grading, all students are treated equally.

Official grades are not given for the scores of mid-term tests. But you can have a general
idea of your performance based on “Column Statistics” available on Blackboard.
Tentative Course Outline
The week-to-week progress may vary and the class coverage may not keep up with the tentative
plan. Exams are, however, held on the scheduled date.
Dates
1/17
1/22
1/31, 2/5
2/7, 12, 14
Lecture Topics
Textbook Chapter(s)
Introduction
What is statistics?
1
Describing Data: Frequency Distribution & Graphic Presentation 2
Describing Data: Numerical Measures
3
Describing Data: Displaying and Exploring Data
4
Discrete Probability Distributions
6
Continuous Probability Distributions
7
2/19
2/21, 26
2/28, 3/5
3/ 7, 12
Mid-term test 1
Sampling Methods and the Central Limit Theorem
Estimation and Confidence Interval
One-Sample Tests of Hypothesis
8
9
10
3/14
3/19, 21
3/26, 28
4/9, 4/11
Mid-term test 2
Two-Sample Tests of Hypothesis
Analysis of Variance
Correlation and Linear Regression
11
12
13
4/16
4/18, 23, 25
4/ 30, 5/2, 5/7
Mid-term test 3
Multiple Regression Analysis
Non-parametric Methods: Goodness-of-fit Tests
14
15
5/16
Final Exam (8:00 – 10:00)
1/24, 29
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