Equal to the sum of the parts

I just finished taking ED P 541, which here at the University of Arizona is Qualitative Research (or Statistics for Educators). I was warned not to try to do this in a 5 week summer session, but I thought it would be best to take when I didn't have other classes. What I didn't figure on was how difficult it would be for me to mentally process the information. I thought if I worked on it in the morning before class, then for an hour or so after class, I could do it.

The truth of statistics is that the math is easy. Especially with a calculator. Of course, I think it's unfair that they didn't have them when I was a kid. (BTW, does anyone know how that memory thing works?) The difficulty lies in knowing what to do, how to do and when to do it. There are letters. There are letters from not one, but two different alphabets. There are little letters below and to the right side of bigger letters. There are fractions and decimals in the same equations. I encountered curves with one and two tails. The one tailed curves look like whales. I had to determine if I wanted to reject the null or retain it. Isn't null....like.... nothing? How can you reject a nothing? There were tables to fill out and tables in the back of the book labeled by single letters like z, t and q. It wasn't just a whole new world. It was a different planet. Maybe a different reality.

So, after a day spent learning about ANOVA (What year? How much mileage? Hard top or convertable?) and whether they had one or two tails, I found I just couldn't spend my evenings with my face in the textbook. I'd had enough of the Ho: and the Hi: for one day. As the days grew into weeks and I was more and more confused, my back began to ache and my stomach was upset. I dreamed I was trapped in a square root bracket and had to explain a phi correlation in order to get out. The next night I dreamed I was swallowed by a one tailed ANOVA.

The class is over. I've handed in my last attempt at an exam. I gave it my best shot. I'll be taking it again in the fall semester, but hopefully I'll learn enough to pass. If not, maybe I can transfer to Hogwarts.