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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Data Science Math Skills by Duke University

4.5
stars
12,073 ratings

About the Course

Data science courses contain math—no avoiding that! This course is designed to teach learners the basic math you will need in order to be successful in almost any data science math course and was created for learners who have basic math skills but may not have taken algebra or pre-calculus. Data Science Math Skills introduces the core math that data science is built upon, with no extra complexity, introducing unfamiliar ideas and math symbols one-at-a-time. Learners who complete this course will master the vocabulary, notation, concepts, and algebra rules that all data scientists must know before moving on to more advanced material. Topics include: ~Set theory, including Venn diagrams ~Properties of the real number line ~Interval notation and algebra with inequalities ~Uses for summation and Sigma notation ~Math on the Cartesian (x,y) plane, slope and distance formulas ~Graphing and describing functions and their inverses on the x-y plane, ~The concept of instantaneous rate of change and tangent lines to a curve ~Exponents, logarithms, and the natural log function. ~Probability theory, including Bayes’ theorem. While this course is intended as a general introduction to the math skills needed for data science, it can be considered a prerequisite for learners interested in the course, "Mastering Data Analysis in Excel," which is part of the Excel to MySQL Data Science Specialization. Learners who master Data Science Math Skills will be fully prepared for success with the more advanced math concepts introduced in "Mastering Data Analysis in Excel." Good luck and we hope you enjoy the course!...

Top reviews

RS

May 5, 2020

This was mostly review for me though probability especially Beyes Theorem derivation was new. The instructors provided clear often refreshing ways to look at material.

Thank you for a great class!!

AS

Jan 11, 2019

Effective way to refresh and add the Data Science math skills! Thanks a lot! At the time of the study some of the quizzes content were not rendering correctly on mobile devices (both iPad and Android)

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1726 - 1750 of 2,666 Reviews for Data Science Math Skills

By Maria A E

•

Jul 13, 2020

The first parts were easy but I have difficulty grasping the concepts in Bayes theorem and binomial theorem yet. I think it needs more content and more sample exercises. It could also help to put exercises in between videos for the concept to stick. All in all, the course was very informative and I learned a lot. Thank you!

By Philippe G

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Nov 14, 2020

Overall, good mix of reviewing introductory 1st year university math with some new concepts for myself. Perhaps some of the Week 1 content was a bit too introductory. On the flip side, Week 4 quizzes on Bayes and probability were a nice challenge!

Perhaps some introductory Linear Algebra would have been nice to include too.

By Alexandra K

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May 27, 2020

Overall it was really good and I remembered a lot of things that I had forgotten. I won't lie - I had a really hard time at module 4 and had to watch more videos on its topics. It was my first time learning specifically about the topics in module 4, so I believe that this is one of the reasons that I found it so difficult.

By Wan A

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Apr 12, 2020

This course is a great place for those who want to get started learning and also a good refresher for those who have learned Calculus, Discrete Math, and Linear Algebra. Overall the course content is easy to understand except for the Week 4 module. I feel like more example should be given for the problem solving question.

By V R

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Apr 22, 2020

Overall, a great course. Can get a little too basic at times. But, very good for any beginners or intermediate level student/professionals who want to get into Data Science and need a little bit of Math background for it. It is a great "first course" for anyone opting for Data Science or Machine Learning course path.

By Ana B

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Jun 5, 2020

A good course if you are in need of refreshing your math skills. While the lectures are mostly easy to understand, the questions are often significantly more difficult than the examples given during lectures. That said, it does cover a fair amount of topics that are important for advancing a career in data science.

By Erick S G P

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Jun 24, 2020

The first three blocks are really good explained. However, the last block containing probability was not so intuitive and I had to go to other sources to understand some concepts. It should be good to strenghten this last part and add more examples on probability of repeated events with and without replacement.

By Trong T L

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May 3, 2019

Good Refresher course. The material is on the easy side so you can finish the class in 1-2 hours. The last part of the class about probability was very good.

If you don't know anything before hand, this would be a good introduction to math topic that you would need to know, but not enough to stand on its own.

By Charan P

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Jul 24, 2021

This course is excellent for people who want to brush up their math skills and learn math in a way that is useful for data science. The probability videos in the last week can be improved. The first instructor is excellent and overall, a great course! Would recommend for high school freshmen or sophomores!

By Megan R

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Jan 6, 2018

This is a good review of basic mathematical principles. There were some examples of how the concepts apply to data analysis, but there could have been even more. The explanations were clear and concise. There is not a lot of reinforcement of the material, so I ended up doing some additional study/review.

By Alessia T

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Aug 21, 2020

I enjoyed taking this course during the quarantine period.

Even though the complexity of the arguments was not really high, the professors were really clear and helpful on every aspect.

I highly reccomend this course to those people who want to have a good revision on some important mathematics arguments.

By Melissa H

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Oct 6, 2020

The instructors break down the mathematical concepts into easy-to-understand terms, which helps me in understanding these concepts when I revisit them after 15 years. A minor feedback is if they could expand on the topic of probability as it moved too fast and slightly not as clear as the other topics.

By Edward I

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May 28, 2019

Great crash course. The latter units really ramp up in difficulty and the quiz/tests really made sure I was paying attention. There were a number of inconsistencies early on in the course. Although there were notices posted about them, it was still jarring to see/hear an example that was clearly wrong.

By quinten w

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Jan 8, 2021

For the most part I enjoyed this class and got quite a bit out of it. I do think there could be more examples shown and maybe even some "homework" given to work through some of the math needed. I did supplement this class with some YouTube videos. Most of those were by "The Organic Chemistry Tutor"

By Nursultan O

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Jul 29, 2020

There is a lack of examples in probability lectures. It would be great If you add more examples in probability lectures. In order to pass the test I had to find more additional explanations and examples on the Internet. Generally, the course is well organized and other topics are explained very good.

By Isra S

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Apr 21, 2020

The course is super good, definitely worth it for a beginner though at the last week it moves at a bit too fast base for a beginner, in general, it's a really good first step and a doorway to better understand and know what are the ways you can get information from data and what can you do with it.

By Lucy S

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Jul 26, 2020

Haven't done this math in 30 years. The general overview and PDF sheet were good. Required use of outside resources to understand units on probability, logarithms, change of base, and rate of growth of continuous processes. Extra time to do outside reading but glad to have learned this material.

By jay s

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Apr 1, 2020

Was a very nice intro into the math behind data science. The final chapter, (week 4) was not as well done as the first 3 weeks. The lessons seemed more hastily thrown together and failed to drive home the important sections. Would have been an easy 5 star but the last week was very disappointing.

By Adam M

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Sep 16, 2017

The Math instructor was great! I loved all his lessons. The engineering instructor teaches this final few weeks. I struggled with his teaching style and his penmanship. But, the topics covered throughout the course are great! The course notes given I also found useful I will hold on to!

By Suyog S

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Jul 25, 2021

Learned lot of new things, I had to sometimes refer to the materials outside the course, but the course provided me with structured learning and helped me to learn the required things, Haven't started any machine learning course, so can't say how much of the course contents are applicable.

By aut n

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May 18, 2020

Some question has no answer. For example, the log in the test 2 that answer is -80/23. It can't be that because the number inside the log less than 0. There are some errors in the same tests, too, such as the answer 1.304. Furthermore, some question in the fourth test has some confusion.

By David M

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Sep 8, 2019

The weakest coverage was definitely in the 4th week during the coverage of probability. One would be better off using youtube videos or another course as this overview was rushed and felt incomplete. The explanations and examples were just not up the standard set by previous weeks 1-3.

By Repko M

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Jan 5, 2022

I would love to have much more exercises on each topic so I could practice more! Plus within the final quiz the final task is not clear - I've calculated both probabilities, but I cannot understand what it means - to assess one probability vs the other and get the numbers in answers.

By Matthew R R W

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May 26, 2018

The videos and class materials are great for introducing students to all of these concepts. However, there should be more ways for students to practice things that they have learned in this class. Some of the modules were especially difficult because of the lack of practice problems.

By Jan-Olof J

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Apr 16, 2021

I learned a lot from this course, but the video walkthroughs for the last 2 weeks where hard to understand. I had to find other learning material that gave better explanations. I rate the course at 4 since the topics included are a good start for getting into data science math.