Hello,
We just finished two chapters on probability distributions, and I feel more confused than I have ever been in my life. We've now covered the following distributions: binomial, hypergeometric, negative binomial, poisson, exponential, gamma, normal, chi squared.
After next week, we will have covered three more in addition to that. (Beta, Lognormal, Weibull.) I'm feeling rather hopeless at this point, but i'm still trying my best to get a grasp on this material. What I fear is that when our midterm exam arrives, I will not be able to identify the distributions from the given problems.
What i'm wondering is if there is some easy way to distinguish which type of distribution a given problem is. Are there certain signs that one should look for which indicate which distribution it will be? Or maybe there is a word or phrase that suddenly triggers in your mind: "Yeah, it's THAT kind of distribution." My book never described how to ID these guys, only gave obscure formulas as definitions with a lot of sigmas, e's, x's, and mu's in them. If anyone has some tips or suggestions on how I can keep these straight, i'll greatly be in your debt!
We just finished two chapters on probability distributions, and I feel more confused than I have ever been in my life. We've now covered the following distributions: binomial, hypergeometric, negative binomial, poisson, exponential, gamma, normal, chi squared.
After next week, we will have covered three more in addition to that. (Beta, Lognormal, Weibull.) I'm feeling rather hopeless at this point, but i'm still trying my best to get a grasp on this material. What I fear is that when our midterm exam arrives, I will not be able to identify the distributions from the given problems.
What i'm wondering is if there is some easy way to distinguish which type of distribution a given problem is. Are there certain signs that one should look for which indicate which distribution it will be? Or maybe there is a word or phrase that suddenly triggers in your mind: "Yeah, it's THAT kind of distribution." My book never described how to ID these guys, only gave obscure formulas as definitions with a lot of sigmas, e's, x's, and mu's in them. If anyone has some tips or suggestions on how I can keep these straight, i'll greatly be in your debt!