Instructor:   Jia Li
417A Thomas Building, phone: 814-863-3074, email: jiali@stat.psu.edu
office hours: MF 2:30pm-3:30pm, Wed 9:30am-11:15am, or by appointment

Teaching assistant:   Zhihui Tang
Office: 418 Thomas Building, phone: 814-865-3230, email: tang@stat.psu.edu
office hours: Tuesday and Thurday 4:30-5:30pm.

Lectures:   MWF 11:15-12:05pm     104 Thomas Building

Course homepage:   http://www.stat.psu.edu/~jiali/course/stat318 .

Description of the course:
Introduction to elementary probability. The course will cover the following topics: computing probabilities by combinatorics, conditional probability and expectation, random variables and joint distributions, and limit theorems.

Prerequisites: Math 230 (calculus), Math 021, 022 (algebra). A fair amount of mathematical expertise (analytical thinking) is expected.

Textbooks:
Required: Mathematical Statistics and Data Analysis, 2nd ed., by John A. Rice

Grading:

• Homeworks:   30%
• Two midterms:   40%
• Final exam:   30%

Exams:

• Midterm:   Wednesday, Feburary 19th and Wednesday, April 2nd.
• Final: May 9th, 4:40pm-6:30pm, 104 Thomas.

1. Dates are subject to potential changes, but will be announced well before the exams.
2. Exams will all be closed book.
3. For midterm, you can bring a one-sided fact sheet no larger than 8.5x11 inches; for final, a two-sided fact sheet no larger than 8.5x11 inches is allowed.
4. Makeup exams are permitted only for very exceptional cases; and verifiable reasons are required for such exceptions. Students who need makeup exams should plan early and let me know at least a week ahead of time. A written notice is required.

Homeworks:

1. Starting from the second week, homework will be assigned almost every week on Wednesday and is due on Wednesday in the following week, unless specially noticed.
2. Homework is required to be submitted at the beginning of the class on Wednesday.
3. Late homework will not be accepted, but one homework with the lowest score will not be included in the final evaluation.
4. Discussion on homework is encouraged. However, each student must turn in his/her own written work that reflects his/her own understanding of the material.

Academic Integrity:

All Penn State and Eberly College of Science policies regarding academic integrity apply to this course. See http://www.science.psu.edu/academic/Integrity/index.html for details.

Topic Schedule

Lecture Dates

Homework

Homework Hints

------------- Updated on January 3rd, 2003 ---------------