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

4.5
stars
12,242 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!!

VC

May 16, 2020

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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1751 - 1775 of 2,708 Reviews for Data Science Math Skills

By Alexander D K

Aug 3, 2019

Very useful indeed. The ressources have a good format but could be more grouped. The videos have good content but should be a bit more curated as they contain quite a few small but confusing errors. The task are very well selected but do not cover every topic to the same amount. I would also wish for a finals test that integrates many of the newly acquired skills, rather than have them isolated.

By Nishant (

Mar 5, 2022

I enjoyed the 4th week and felt it to be the most challenging, however having some prior knowledge on the topic is helpful as the practice quizzes can ramp up in difficulty quite quickly although the challenge is enjoyable. The course progresses quickly however some may find the earlier modules easier and may consider skipping to the practice tests. Overall, the course was good!

By Diana S

Aug 14, 2023

The section on Probability/Bayes' Theorem could use more examples of how numbers in the formulas are derived. It seemed a bit fast-paced for someone who has not seen statistics and probability in ten years. This was meant as a refresher but it really slowed me down to have to stop the videos often and try to figure out where the numbers they were writing were coming from.

By Colin P

Mar 28, 2018

Good refresher course on introductory math concepts relevant to data science (I hope!). The probability modules were a little light for me, given how deep probability is. I think more time/instruction could of been spent on this subject. Overall, this is a good course if you want a refresh on math concepts, or to firm up some learning gaps before taking more math courses.

By Farshid A

Jun 15, 2020

In overall this was a great math course, Dr Bendich is a great professor and he teaches concepts very clearly however I had a hard time to understand really what Dr Egger is trying to teach it was more like reviewing concepts for himself rather than explaining things. I had to take some complementary courses in udemy in order to understand what he was trying to teach.

By Charissa B

Sep 30, 2020

It's a refresher of sorts for long forgotten high school algebra, calculus, and probabilities. It's helpful for reminding you of the concepts and have a vague general sense of how they are processed. The video companion PDF have been helpful, though I would personally appreciate a few more examples just to help me really understand how the computations take place.

By Stylianos I

May 8, 2020

I really enjoyed the course. It is true that in the beginning the knowledge that was given was very basic. I would like to have more practice quizzes than the course has acquired. I put a 4-star rating having in mind that 5-star ratings are for exceptional cases. The course is fairly good for an introduction to the data science and so I definitely recommend it.

By Krishna K

Nov 18, 2024

Coverage of Content is good. Section 1, 2 and 3 - was very good. But Section 4 and 5 the content is not easily understood. It will be difficult for students to grasp all these concepts. Suggest - More detailed explanations and more hands on practice in each of the submodules of the Module 4 and 5.

By Kaungkhant K

Apr 21, 2020

This course makes me realize which part of my math skills was lacking and learnt a lot of techniques from here , although if you were finding a basic one this is not for u coz probability part is not that fundamental and they just covers the contents in a little rough way, hope they made it a little better, its just a little ya know, .... Great course really

By Katya K

Nov 11, 2019

the first few lectures, first half is really easy to follow, quizzes are a great way of firming up the new knowledge. Last few lectures are very challenging comparing to the beginning of the course, and I felt that some have missed key steps unexplained. The final quiz doesn't provide feedback which makes it useless as a way to recapitulate and practice.

By Ashray M

Mar 30, 2017

Refreshing your Basics

The whole course is a just brushing up your basic math. The videos are brief and to the point, and problems make you use your brains and they are not right out of the video or any other reading material. I feel only Bayes and binomial theorem videos are not comprehensive and the problems a quite challenging.

By 肖霁航

Sep 18, 2019

All skills taught in this course are prileminary are preliminary and essentially. In my pont of view, anyone who get familiar with probabilitis and statistics in high shcool chould pass this course easily. Though its content is easy, it's still a good course that anyone can review key points and take some practices in class.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.