#capsunm

Okay, it’s time, folks. Finals. Are. HERE.

Are you ready?

So, there is a lot of advice out there about what to do for finals. If you’re looking for quick tips and tricks check out this funny list from Buzzfeed. Looking for advice from a more serious-sounding website?  Business insider rounded up these tips from around the webernet .

From where I’m sitting, though, there are really two keys to a successful finals week: time management and stress management (read: time management).

So…. TIME MANAGEMENT

Finals week basically means the culmination of an entire semester’s worth of work, knowledge, and teeny-tiny details. If your final is cumulative, then it means you’re reviewing the notes from week one, which, at this point, may or may not look like a foreign language.  Even if it’s not cumulative (congratulations!), finals are still typically worth more points that the other exams you’ve taken during the semester - which, of course, equals higher stakes, more pressure, and more stress.

One of the easiest ways to manage the stress is to create a Finals Game-Plan.

Don’t know where to start? Try this this step-by-step strategy:

1) List each final you have on separate pieces of paper. Add the date and time of the exam for good measure.

2) Now list the types of items you’ll need to review for that test. Some examples: Review lecture notes, Go over powerpoint slides, Skim textbook chapters.

3) Okay, now how much time does it take for you to do each thing, on average? For example, maybe it takes you about 5 minutes to review the lecture notes for one day,  and 10 minutes to skim one textbook chapter.

4) Now, count how many (or estimate) the number of items in each category you’ll need to review. Maybe for one final you have notes for the past 20 lectures, and 10 chapters to skim.

5) Finally, some math. Multiply the average time it takes you to do each thing by the number of items in each category. For our example, I’d multiply 20 lecture notes by 5 minutes = 100 minutes for lecture-note review, AND 10 textbook chapters by 10 minutes = 100 minutes for textbook chapter skimming.

6) Okay, now add it all up and you have one big number for each final. But don’t worry, that’s normal. Your game-plan may look something like this:

 So, now what? Well, you know how much total time you need for each final, which means you can reverse engineer that time into your schedule. Break up those big numbers into hour-long or half-hour long units, and plug them into your calendar over the course of the week. Bonus: you also know what specific strategies to use to study for each exam (because you listed them), AND you can prioritize which strategy will give you the biggest pay-off (maybe you learn best when you complete practice problems, versus reviewing PP lectures, so you do the practice problems first). This is just one example of a study plan - there are a lot of different versions out there (this one has colors!), and you should try different things to see what works best for you. And, Finally…. REMEMBER: Give yourself some “sanity” time (THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT).  Your performance on all of your finals WILL suffer if you don’t do all of the following on a regular basis – eat, sleep, breath. In the moment, it may feel like pulling an all-nighter to get those extra 2 hours of studying in is so worth it compared to 2 hours of sleep, but your brain needs sleep (synapses need rest too, you know). If you don’t take some time to let your brain encode all of that important information, it may not stick and you’ll end up in a repetitive loop of unproductive studying (read: waste of time).

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Even though it may feel like there isn’t enough time to do anything during finals week, taking just a few minutes to assess your Finals Game-Plan is so worth it in the long run. It’s all about taking control of your time and feeling like you have a handle on what’s going on, especially when you feel like everything is coming at you.  

Okay, everyone. Good luck out there. You got this!

by Jared DiDomenico, CAPS Statistics Tutor

What on Earth is ANOVA?

One of the more advanced topics that undergraduate students may start to encounter is the analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical procedure. Usually students are pretty apt at understanding the t-tests and their procedures, but ANOVA is a bit different. To put it simply, it’s when you want to compare the means of two samples and see if they differ. But what happens if you have more than two groups? What if we are curious about more than one type of factor (e.g. sex, education, etc.)? Then we use the ANOVA model.

Wikipedia defines ANOVA as, “… a collection of statistical models used to analyze the differences among group means and their associated procedures (such as "variation" among and between groups).” That’s quite a mouthful. Essentially, it means we can examine the means of various groups by comparing the variation that we could expect to find naturally between the groups and within the groups. Let’s think about that.

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Variation is something that is always going to be a part of data that consists of random variables. We are all familiar with the normal distribution. Height is an example of something that is normally distributed. This is saying that people in a population will have different heights at various frequencies (i.e. tall people occur less often than people of average height) that can be distributed like a bell curve. If we wanted to examine something like height from an ANOVA point of view it would kind of look like this:

EXAMPLE #1

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Are the heights between the various university sports teams different from one another? Let’s examine the heights of all the soccer, basketball, and football players at UNM (for the sake of this example, data will be made up). We found that the average heights of the soccer players were 70 inches, the football players were 72 inches, and the basketball players were 75 inches. Oh look, they aren’t equal therefore they are different! If anyone has had any statistics classes they know that this isn’t necessarily true because there is natural variation that may have just made our samples different. ANOVA is aimed at seeing if the means of heights in these groups are different and this can be understood if the variation that is present within the soccer players, within the football players, and within the basketball players is different than the variation between the all of the players.

Are the Means Different?

Like any statistical test, we have to have a null hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis. The null hypothesis the hypothesis we assume to be true. Null is usually synonymous with nothing, thus the null hypothesis is no effect. An alternative hypothesis is something that is different from null and cannot occur if the null is true. If the null is no effect, then something mutually exclusive is that there is an effect. Both can’t happen at the same time.

Now, specifically for ANOVA, our null hypothesis is all the group means are the same, or no difference.

The alternative is the opposite, or the compliment in probability, that at least one mean differs from the others. The easiest notation for this is:

To calculate whether or not there are any differences you need to know a few things…

Sums of Squares

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Sums of Squares are a measure of variability within our data. The total sums of squares is a measure of all the variability that is present within our model. (Note: I am going to start calling this ANOVA a model, because that’s what it is, its predicting a response knowing information from what group the response was in, plus a little error). This is a simple, yet tedious calculation, and is as follows:

SSTO (total sums of squares)

Essentially this is saying take the ith value from jth group, subtract the grand mean of the responses from it, square it, and then add it all up using every point in every group.

If we were do some mathematical proofs, we could figure out how to split up the total variation to show the variation between the groups and the variation within the groups. Essentially they are calculated as follows:

SSTR (treatment sums of squares,sometimes called between)

SSE (sums of squares of error, sometimes called within)

This shows us that, SSTO = SSTR +SSE. So it will be easier to solve two of them then use that information to solve the other. At the end of this I will include an example to illustrate the calculations.

The ANOVA Table

We can organize all the needed information by creating an ANOVA table. The general One-Way ANOVA table is below:

The table above shows how to use the sums of squares and information from the group sizes to be able to calculate an F- statistic called F*.

Once we know F* we can compare it to the F-distribution to find a p-value. First we need a level of confidence, the degrees of freedom for the treatment and the degrees of freedom for the error to find the critical F. Thus,

If F* > F(0.95, degrees of freedom for treatment, degrees of freedom for error), we will reject the null hypothesis and conclude the alternative.

If F* < F(0.95, degrees of freedom for treatment, degrees of freedom for error), we will fail to reject the null hypothesis.

From here you interpret you results. If you rejected the null then you know that there is at least one group or treatment mean that differs from the others. If you fail to reject the null hypothesis then all the group means are equal. Just be sure to tell what that means in context of the problems.

AND THAT’S IT FOR ANOVA.

Usually this test is followed by what are called multiple comparisons, if one rejects the null. If the null hypothesis was not rejected then you are finished. Multiple comparisons will be the subject of future blogs.

FULL EXAMPLE

The following are generated data following sports example mentioned previously:

1) State Your Hypotheses

The null hypothesis is that all the teams have the same mean height:

The alternative is that at least one sports team differs in mean height:

2) Calculation of Sums of Square

SSTO (total sums of squares)

SSTO =(69-72.33)^2+(72-72.33)^2+ ...+ (79-72.33)^2+ (76-72.33)^2=270.7

SSTR (treatment sums of squares, sometimes called between)

SSTR = 10*(70-72.33)^2+(10*(72-72.33))^2+10*(75-72.33)^2=126.7

SSE (sums of squares of error, sometimes called within)

SSE = (69-70)^2+⋯+(69-70)^2+(74-72)^2+⋯+(67-72)^2+ (76-75)^2+⋯+ (76-75)^2=144

Notice -> SSTO = SSTR + SSE = 126.7 + 144 = 270.7

3) Create the ANOVA Table

4) Decision

If F* > F(0.95, 2, 27), we will reject the null hypothesis and conclude the alternative.

If F* < F(0.95, 2, 27), we will fail to reject the null hypothesis.

We need to find F(0.95, 2, 27). Using a table, or program, we find that F(0.95, 2, 27) = 3.354.

Because F* = 11.88 > 3.354 = F(0.95, 2, 27), we reject the null hypothesis that the group means are equal and go with the alternative.

5) Conclusion

Because we rejected the null hypothesis, we conclude the alternative: At least one team has a mean height different than another.

To figure out which one, we must perform multiple comparisons, the subject of a different blog.

By Jordan Torres, CAPS SI Leader

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If you’ve been pre-med for a semester or two, chances are you’re pretty familiar with the chemical above. Any guesses? Well it is none other than 1,3,7- Trimethylpurine-2,6-dione, or its more common name….Caffeine.

Many pre-med students come into college planning their schedules with 3 or 4 tough science classes, as if they can conquer anything in their path. After reality sets in it becomes well as long as I pass this chemistry class. It is no lie that it is a difficult path to become a doctor, but it is not impossible. As a freshman I was dead set on finding the right “formula” to get to medical school, but the truth is there isn’t one. What I am here to do is share a few tips on surviving these four years.

1. GPA is important

When trying to get into medical school, there is no getting around this one. According to the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), the 2015 mean GPA of those accepted was a 3.7. So as a student taking Organic Chemistry, Biology and Physics at the same time they expect me to get that? Along with shadowing, volunteering, and somehow getting some sleep, how?! The best way is to get off to a great start to each semester with some excellent study habits.

-Do a little bit of studying each day, DON’T PROCRASTINATE.

-Utilize sources like CAPS, professors and TA’s office hours.

-A good study group is second to none.

2. Shadowing

So I went to the Doctor last year for a check-up, I actively listened any time he said a medical term, and even asked him a few questions about the last “Grey’s Anatomy episode,” that’s good experience right? Not quite. There is no way to know that you truly want to be a physician unless you experience their day to day life. Shadowing is crucial to any pre-med, as it let’s medical schools know that you are invested in this experience.

3. Extracurricular Activities

Get involved on campus, volunteer, or join some clubs. There are two ways to spend your time in college; doing things that you enjoy and those that make you grow as a person.  Whatever it may be, make sure that you get something out of it, not just doing it to check a box.

4. Have some fun

The last thing that you should do through college is to enjoy yourself. Always have some good ways to de-stress after a long week. Your undergrad should be the most fun times of your life, and you can approach it as such even with the difficult course work.

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by CAPS Supplemental Instruction Team

1. Read the chapter before you come to class.

Many of my professors had us take quizzes on the reading during the first ten minutes of class to ensure that we read and attempted to understand the chapter. Because of this I was able to stay on top of the reading assignments. However, I know not all professors have this reading incentive. Studies have shown that reading and doing practice problems before class actually leads to more effective learning in class. According to researchers, knowledge is encoded more strongly in your brain when the learner does part of the learning himself/herself.

2. Review your lecture notes right after or soon after class.

I know that it is so easy to completely forget about how much of the lecture you don’t understand after class. But, reviewing or even simply rewriting your notes for thirty minutes helps your brain retain and understand much more information. Reviewing your notes on a regular basis helps avoid cramming information in at the last minute for a test. You will honestly be surprised how much you remember when you start to do this.

3. In class or while you are reading the chapter write down questions on a post it note or separate sheet of paper.

Personally, if I think of a question and I don’t write it down right away, I’ll forget about it. So just get into the habit of writing down concepts, practice problems, or specific applications that you have questions on. You can either ask your professor in class, come to CAPS, or see your TA. This leads me right into my next tip.

4. Go to your professor/TA when you don’t understand something.

I know, I know. Everyone tells you to go to your professor’s office hours. But I’m telling you to actually go this time. Although they may seem intimidating in class, most professors are actually pretty cool people. They like students that come in with specific questions because it shows them that you actually care about their class. Just please please get help when you need it. If you can’t make your professor’s office hours go talk to your TA or even come to CAPS to get help. Going to SI sessions helped me a lot because it provided me with a lot of additional practice problems.

5. Don’t be too hard on yourself.

Don’t study all the time. Seriously you’ll just run yourself dry. What I like to do is set aside one night a week where I don’t do anything school related. I just hang out with my friends and maybe watch some Netflix. And remember that one bad test or homework score is not going to destroy your entire grade in that class. If this happens just pick yourself up and study smarter for the next exam.

by Jessica Tipton, CAPS German Tutor

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Learning a language can be exceptionally difficult, especially without the proper resources. The academic sources that teachers recommend can be so hard to follow or dry to read. Why do those exercises if they’ll put you to sleep?

What if, instead, you could go on YouTube and call it homework?

Several German YouTubers have taken it upon themselves to teach people all over the world German--you included. I would recommend the following:

For Beginners

Deutsch fur Euch

Katja has set up a series of videos for German learners that begin with the alphabet, as depicted here, and continue on to explain aspects of German grammar and to provide vocabulary. She speaks primarily in English, and provides subtitles for the German words she provides, so it’s great for those people who wish to refresh or haven’t taken a day of German previously. Katja is up to nearly 100 episodes, and is a great resource for beginning learners.

For Intermediates

Easy Languages Channel

Easy German Channel

Easy Languages--and Easy German, which is a spin-off channel--is wonderful for language learners of many languages, but I want to focus on the German as I’m most familiar with it. There are several different types of videos, but my favorites (as the one included above) feature Cari, our host, who walks around the streets of German-speaking places and asks people their opinions about a variety of topics. The videos are almost wholly in German, which is fantastic for practicing your listening skills, but they also have subtitles in both German and English, so you can keep up without having to understand everything. It’s great both for learning to listen and speak, but also for picking up on the culture of the language as well.

For Advance Learners

Mr. Wissen 2 Go

Mirko’s channel name translates to Mr. Knowledge to go, likely in reference to the fact that, rather than teaching German, he explores various relevant topics to Germany. If you’re an advanced learner seeking to practice your listening skills, build more advanced vocabulary, and to learn more about German culture (and a few other things), check out this channel. Mirko explores a variety of topics (for example, politics in the included video) in Germany, trying to simplify or discuss things that are fairly complex. He cites his sources as well as additional information, so you can do some German reading as well. It’s a wonderful thinking exercise, and a great way to learn more about Germany usage if you’re up for the challenge. He does speak fairly quickly, as warning, so don’t be discouraged if it’s a little too fast for you.

I hope you have fun exploring these three channels--even if you aren’t learning German, you might find something of interest here. And if you have any questions, or would like to discuss German, come to CAPS and chat with me!

by Zack Hazlett, CAPS SI Leader

Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. -John F. Kennedy

The connection between good health and our performance as students cannot be overstated. Our bodies are machines. The better we take care of them, the better they function and have the ability to produce meaningful products. As college students, it’s easy to sacrifice physical activity when the schedule gets too busy. I’ve been in this place and I burned out quick. Taking time to shut the books and go work your body is more important than you realize.

My suggestion is simple: Go do something you enjoy. If you’re not into the traditional gym approach, it’s okay! There’s plenty of other ways to be active and have fun doing it. Below, I offer multiple alternatives for habitual exercise that are worth while to incorporate into your schedule.

Riding Bicycles 

Albuquerque has incorporated over 400 miles of bicycle trails and multi-use paths throughout the 505. Checkout the city of ABQ interactive bike map here, or pick up a free paper copy at your local bike shop.

Rock Climbing

If you don’t have the ability to visit some of New Mexico’s excellent climbing spots, check out the student membership options at our local Stone Age Climbing Gym. It’s super fun and a great way to make new friends.

Running (outside)

ABQ has an average of 310 days of sunshine per year, so get outside, run with a buddy, upbeat music, whatever. Three cheers for endorphins!

Yoga

Nothing like exercise that lets you stretch and relax. Also another community building activity! Weekly yoga sessions are held at Hyder Park accompanied by a fleet of food trucks, and happy families.

Learn a New Sport!

           Tennis - The word “love” is in the scoring system

           Ultimate Frisbee - Plastic Disks and headbands

           Frisbee Golf - For those who can’t choose between frisbee and golf

           Volleyball - Sand and Sunshine

           Rugby - For people who just need to hit someone

Whatever you choose, have fun doing it. Make new friends. Take the time to enjoy life a little.

by CAPS Language Team

Edited by Jessica Tipton, CAPS Writing and German Tutor

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3

According to Google, an idiom is “a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual word”--which isn’t a very user-friendly definition. Idioms are sayings that mean things other than the literal definition of the words in them. There are a lot of them in English, and many of them happen to star animals. For example:

It’s raining cats and dogs! 

He’s a pig. 

You’re a bull in a china shop.

More importantly, other languages have them, too, and our CAPS tutors have compiled the following:

ARABIC

Tutor: Jake

عصفور في اليد خير من عشرة على الشجرة

Literal Translation: A bird in the hand is better than ten in the tree.

Note: This is the same sentiment as the English “A bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush,” indicating the value that to have something is better than to wait for something more.

الطيور على اشكالها تقم

Literal Translation: Similar birds set up together.

Note: Although similar to the English idea of “birds of a feather stick together,” this refers to setting up a home together as well.

CHINESE

Tutor: Wenhao

爱屋及乌

Literal Translation: Love me, love my dog

Meaning: The love for the house extends even to the crows perching on its roof -- loving one thing on account of another; e.g., a person loves the tree, so he loves the branch or person A loves person B, and A even extends his love to B's dog. This word is used to describe how blind and how crazy the love is.

Example:

这是件爱屋及乌之事，她不会去除非他被邀请了。

"It was a case of love me, love my dog, she wouldn't go unless he was invited."

FRENCH

Tutor: Savannah C.

Parler français comme une vache espagnole.

Literal Translation: To speak French like a Spanish cow.

Note: Savannah says, “Luckily no one ever told me I spoke French this badly when I was first learning!”

GERMAN

Tutor: Jessica

Ich kriege eine Katze.

Literal Translation: I get a cat / I'm getting a cat.

Note: This usually means that one is getting really angry or really mad. This is often used in reference to things one hears on the news specifically.

GREEK

Tutor: Nina

λύσω τὴν ἐμαυτῆς ὗν ἐγὼ δή  (from Aristophanes' Lysistrata l.684)

Literal Translation: I will release my pig

Meaning: I will release my anger

ICELANDIC

Tutor: Savannah R. (Writing Tutor)

Efter þvi sem gamlir fuglar sungu, kvököu þeir ungu

Literal Translation: As the old birds sing, so the young ones tweet.

Note: This means that children learn from the adults in their lives. For this reason, it is best to set a great example for future generations.

ITALIAN

Tutor: Daisy

Person 1: In bocca al lupo!

Person 2: Crepi/crepi il lupo

Literal Translation: Phrase 1- In the wolf's mouth! Phrase 2: May the wolf die

Meaning: The first phrase ("in bocca al lupo") is said to someone as "good luck." Once said, the other person responds with "crepi."

Notes: It is unclear what the exact origins of this idiom (come as a pair) are as there are a couple of interpretations:

1) It emulates the good fortune brought by a good hunt.

2) The wolf in literature and hunting is often portrayed as a ferocious and malicious creature. With the wolf representing the enemy, the phrase would serve as a premonition of ending up in the hands of the enemy.

3) My favorite interpretation refers to the creation myth of Rome. In the creation myth, twins Romulus and Remus are saved (and later raised) by a female wolf after their mother, Rhea Silva, put them in a basket on the river to spare their lives (http://www.ancient.eu/Romulus_and_Remus/ (Links to an external site.)). Therefore, saying "in bocca al lupo" is a way of wishing someone protection, like Romulus and Remus were protected by the mouth of the wolf that saved them. The original response to this is said to have been "grazie" ("thank you"), though it's said to have changed to "crepi" due to the various interpretations ("crepi" being a more warranted response to the negative interpretation of the wolf idiom).

JAPANESE

Tutor: Ari

日本語: 一石二鳥 / isseki ni chou

Literal Translation: Two birds one stone

Note: Like the English, this means to accomplish two things at once

Student Manager: Motomi

日本語: 狐の嫁入り/kitsune no yome-iri

Literal Translation: the fox's wedding

Meaning: sunshower (when rain falls while the sun is shining)

Note: In old days, ghostly lines of lights at night were considered to be a wedding procession of foxes, who are tricksters in the Japanese folklores (like coyote here?). Eventually, the expression became to be used for the sunshower, another strange phenomenon.

LATIN

Tutor: Nina

novom aucupium (from Terence's Eunuchus l.247)

Translation: "A new bird-catching/fowling" or "a new way of catching birds"

Meaning: a new method of doing something. In this context, the character, Gnatho, explains that his type of parasitus gets his food a different way than previous types (parasitus is a type of mooching stock character).

PORTUGUESE

Tutor: Simoni

Tirar o cavalo da chuva

Literal Translation: Take the pony away from the rain

Meaning: Forget it/don't wait for it. This can be used in a situation in which something will not work out or you will not get it.

RUSSIAN

Tutor: Uphoria

слон в посудной лавке

English: an elephant in a china shop

Note: Like the above-mentioned English "bull in a china shop," this indicates one who behaves boorishly in sensitive contexts or one who is clumsy around fragile objects

SPANISH

Tutors: Dominique, Josue, Ana, and Sergio

Andar como perros y gatos.

Literal Translation: Walking like dogs and cats.

Meaning: To be constantly quarreling. Cats and dogs are known to not be the best of friends. Therefore, this expression is used to describe a conflicting relationship between people.

Aqui hay gato encerrado

Literal Translation: There is a locked up cat here.

Meaning: There is something “fishy” going on here--something that is either not quite right or somehow suspicious.