These basic skills will all come up during your semester of SIS-600, and your familiarity with each is important for success. Our hope is that you’ll be up to speed on each of these at the beginning of the semester.
In the sections below you’ll find guides, videos, and practice problems for each skill. Once you’re familiar with the skill and can answer the practice questions, move on to the next one. Once you’re comfortable with all of it, go ahead and take the assessment quiz. You may attempt each question on the quiz multiple times.
How should I simplify an expression like: 3 * 4+5 * (2+8)? Do I multiply and then add? Add and then multiply? Learn the “order of operations.”
What is the difference between percent, percent change, and percentage-point change? How do I calculate each of them?
What is this strange sigma (a greek letter) doing in my stats book? What does it mean, and what do I do when I see this “summation operator” in front of an equation?
Given the equation Y = 3 + 6 * X, what value of X would yield a Y-value of 12? What is the value of X when Y equals 16? Learn to solve equations for a single variable.
WE WORK WITH LINES ALL THE TIME IN SIS-600. BE READY. What is the formula for a line, and what does that formula mean? How do I plot a line on a graph? What is the proper interpretation of the slope of a line?
How can I summarize and clearly present the quantitative information I record about the world?