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Statistics and Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, and data visualization.
Statistics and data analysis form the backbone of modern actuarial practice. From fitting distributions to building predictive models, statistical methods help actuaries extract insights from data and make informed decisions about risk.
Key Concepts
- •Descriptive statistics: measures of central tendency, dispersion, and shape
- •Sampling distributions: t, chi-squared, and F distributions
- •Hypothesis testing: null and alternative hypotheses, p-values, type I and II errors
- •Confidence intervals: construction and interpretation for means, proportions, and variances
- •Analysis of variance (ANOVA): comparing means across multiple groups
- •Nonparametric methods: sign test, Wilcoxon, Kruskal-Wallis, and rank correlation
- •Maximum likelihood estimation: deriving MLEs and their asymptotic properties
- •Method of moments: equating sample and population moments for parameter estimation
- •Goodness-of-fit tests: chi-squared, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, and Anderson-Darling
- •Data visualization: histograms, QQ plots, residual plots for model diagnostics
Study Tips
- 1.Focus on understanding when to use each test rather than memorizing formulas.
- 2.Practice deriving MLEs for common distributions (exponential, normal, Poisson).
- 3.Learn to interpret p-values and confidence intervals in context.
- 4.Work through ANOVA problems step by step, including the F-test calculation.
- 5.Always check assumptions before applying a statistical test.
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