Applying Statistical Concepts using SAS® Enterprise Guide® 4

Role

Statistical Analyst

Duration

3 days

Description

This course is for analysts wanting to apply statistical concepts in a business environment. It covers a range of introductory statistical topics and uses Enterprise Guide to carry out analyses. Emphasis will be placed on the interpretation of the results to answer business problems through examination and prediction of data correlation.

Prerequisites

Before attending this course, you should have: An understanding of basic mathematical concepts e.g. calculating percentages. Some familiarity with basic statistical concepts such as variability will be beneficial.

SAS Modules Used

Enterprise Guide 4 software.

Course Topics

Business Problems and Statistical Solutions:

• Understanding the purpose of statistics
• Calculating some simple summary statistics
• Examining the variability of data, why can we never be sure?

Testing Business Questions:

• Introduction to terminology for testing questions
• What is a t-test and when is it used?
• How can I obtain and interpret a p-value?
• What is analysis of variance and how is it different to a t-test?
• Performing analysis of variance

Categorised Data - Why is it different?

• Examining categorised data
• Examining and testing for an association between two variables
• Calculating and interpreting the chi-square test for association

Is There a Relationship Between Two Continuous Variables?

• Exploring the relationship between two continuous variables
• Measuring a linear relationship using correlation
• Understanding the misuses of correlation statistics
• Defining the linear relationship

How can we look at more than two continuous variables?

• Is our target variable related to more than one variable?
• Can we get better predictions by using more variables?
• How can we select the 'best' variables?

What if our target variable is binary?

• Why do we need to do something different?
• What is logistic regression and how does it work?
• What is an odds ratio and why is it useful?

Objectives

After attending this course, you should be able to: See how statistics can be used to answer business problems, Interpret some simple summary statistics, Assess the precision of your statistics, Examine ways of testing business questions, Examine relationships between variables, Produce predictions of target variables, Explain why categorised data are treated differently, Know what to do if your target variable is binary (e.g. Yes/No, Default/Repay)