Profoundly Confused

Well, it's Sunday, 1 a.m., and I am still trying to understand the difference between cluster sampling and stratified random sampling in my statistics class. It's not that I haven't read and re-read the text or that I haven't searched online at a dozen places that removed some of the cloudiness, but it's that I don't think I grok it. Two years ago, when I took my first statistics courses (RES/341 and RES/342), I somehow understood it well - but, now the concepts escape me. I wonder if the brain cells that used to hold those bits of crisp comprehension have somehow been destroyed in the interim. It's as if I'm reading the material for the first time - and worse, it's not even like the first time I read about sampling, because then I understood it immediately and was the 'go to' person for other students to check their knowledge. It's really odd how it can all just slip away.

But, in the process of trying to "get" it, I sure have uncovered some great statistics sites. So, to make this a useful post, I've decided to list out several resources and to describe why they were helpful to me. Just in case any of my fellow classmates find their way to this blog and feel as frustrated as I am, please, by all means, check out these sites.

• One of the most descriptive statistics sites I found was StatSoft. And this site has everything the intermediate or advanced student could want. Unfortunately, it had little if nothing to say about the very elementary statistics concepts (like sampling) that I needed. Still, I can foresee a use for it later in this course.
• I also found a link for a variety of online statistics calculators. The calculators always helped me after I set up the problem and solved it correctly. Before hand, it would serve me little good because I would have had no clue how it arrived at its answer. So, if you like to check your work, use these.
• This next site might not be pretty, but it is packed with easy-to-understand statistics explanations. Each of the beginner-friendly lessons provides clear explanations, examples, reasoning behind the explanations or examples, and tips on how to study and retain the information. I've found it useful. Maybe you will too.
• Pink Monkey! Ok, this next site is irritatingly pink and, while it states it is a guide for students in junior high through college, I felt the explanations were geared more toward the former than the latter. Be that as it may, I still found the explanations pretty useful. After all, if they are gearing their site toward kids, I should have even less problem in understanding the material, right? Well, let's just say this site helped me even though it made me embarrassingly self-conscious being a grad student! LOL.
• This Texas A&M University site offers basic statistics information (definitions and formulas). I found that the information provided covered all the areas covered in my MBA/510 course. The only downside to this site is that it is very cursory. But, the upside is that if you're looking for a "Just the facts, ma'am" approach, you can easily get it here. It is little more than a statistics glossary.

If you know of any other useful sites, I'd love to see them. At this point, I'd welcome additional material. Maybe if I read enough of it, it will sink in.