RSS Higer Certificate in Statistics self study

connie00

I was considering studying independently for the Royal Society of Statistics Higher Certificate exams. I have a basic knowledge of statistics and a reasonable knowledge of Maths (as I'm from a computer science background). I've also done an Open University Maths course this year as a refresher. Really enjoyed it but find the OU expensive.

Just wondering if anyone out there had any experience of studying for these exams themselves, advice on how how many books from the reading list would I need or any other tips.

Also I see Dublin and Belfast are down as exam centres, are the RSS exams popular in Ireland anyone hear involved with the society ?

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

fergalr

Interesting thread - I'd be curious to hear the answers to those questions too.

Lexor

I've have the RSS higher cert, and the past papers are very good at helping you proceed for the exam....though I did it when the exam was a little less modularised. For the whole syallabus, I doubt if you will get it all in one book. I used "Advanced statistics from an elementary point of view" ISBN 100120884941. It covers a lot of the syllabus..but doesn't cover timer series. The Dublin exams are held in Kevin Street DIT.

Ostrom

How much is the course? I'm looking at the dip.stat in trinity, open uni run a similar course and fees for both are around 3500

connie00

The RSS are examinations only not a course. They provide a syllabus, past papers and reading list, but other than that it is up to yourself. I think the fees are in the region of eighty sterling per exam. There are six modules each with an associated exam. One of the UK universities (southhampton I think), provide distance learning for these exams. All your paying for though is some study guides and tutor support, again its up to the individual to source the relevant books.

Lexor

I knew a girl who sat both the RSS higher cert. (She went on to complete the Graduate Diploma) and the dip. stat. in Trinity. In her opinion, the RSS higher cert. was of a higher standard. She also registered to do the RSS via Southampton, but was not at all impressed by their offerings. The material supplied certainly wasn't up to OU standards.

prokofiev

Just reopening this thread to ask if anyone sat the rss certificate or graduate diploma exams and you found it. I've a science background, and a basic grasp of statistics but I'd like to give this a go but have found very little first-hand comments about it on the web. Can anyone help me a little?

Lexor

Hi prokofiev,

I sat (and passed) the ordinary certificate and higher certificate exams. I attempted the mathematical statistics papers of the graduate diploma but didn't pass them.

The ordinary certificate is pretty easy and with your degree already, you may be able to skip this paper and move onto the higher certificate. You may want to check this out with the RSS themselves just to clarify but it was something I remember from a long time ago.

The higher certificate is modularised now and is very doable from a self-study perspective. The syllabus doesn't appear to have changed much from when I took it, but certainly do not under estimate the amount of work involved as there is quite a lot.

The past papers and exam solutions on the RSS site along with the recommended reading lists are a great help. Practice as many of the previous exam papers as possible (and leave going to the answers for a while). This will give you a good indication of how well you really are at answering the questions and the level of detail required is quite deep and you will have to understand the theory behind your answer.

I found the mathematical statistics papers (papers 1 & 2) of the graduate diploma to be very tough studying it by myself. In the future, I plan to sit the papers again sometime in the future especially as the paper is more modularised now and as I have also greatly increased my maths knowledge in the mean-time. I've also been having a good look at the updated syllabus and papers 3,4 & 5 are all very doable but would require a lot of work though. I've attempted to complete these papers but time constraints meant I never really was able to take them as seriously as I would have liked and as a result, never took the exams for these papers.

All in all, I found studying the the RSS material to be a very rewarding experience. By all means, do not under-estimate the amount of work required in order to get a decent mark on each paper. It took me a year to complete the ordinary certificate and another year to complete the higher certificate. For the graduate diploma, I would only recommend taking two papers at most within a single year.

Hope that helps...

prokofiev

Hi Lexor

That's a great reply and was just what I was looking for. Thank you very much. It gives me a little more insight into what's involved at the different levels. It's good to see that it is possible and what pace is advisable. I think I'll dip my toes in at Higher Cert level on a module or two and take it from there.

I thought I leave a post on this thread and someone might see it over the next few months. It's great to get such a speedy reply. Thanks again Lexor. P.