Hi

My name is Iain, I completed a BA in Criminology and Sociology 4 years ago, but I would really like to return to university to study for a PHD in Sociology. I would like to develop my undergraduate dissertation into a PHD thesis, and I have been looking into the ESRC 1+3 course, my only real concern is the level of maths skills involved in a Quanititive methods course, as I am dyslexic and have struggle with Algerbraic formulas, one institution I an interested in focuses on using a statistical profiling programme called SPSS, I have looked at the course notes and I am away that a certain understanding of basic formulas is required, but wanted to ask if there are any social scientists, taking a research masters who could advise me of the level of maths skills required in a Quanititive methods module and specially using the SPSS programme, and the depth of knowledge required to successfully complete the course. Also if anyone had any SPSS course material/ handouts they could show me that would be very welcome.

Thanks

Iain

At my uni, we have to learn all the 'real maths' at undergrad - then that is essentially forgotten about and you use SPSS instead at postgrad level. SPSS is like excel and it does it all for you - it takes a bit of learning but its quite intuitive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZlIffMWlq8&feature=related

You may have 1 or 2 exam questions on the theory behind the statistics you use, but it depends on the university.

Thanks Sneaks,

that is a fanastic, I've just finished watching it. :-)

Hey! I am doing a PhD in clinical psychology and analyse my data using SPSS. I learnt to use it in my undergrad and then took an advanced statistics module on my MSc which used SPSS too. When I was learning stats we had to learn to do a lot of it by hand, to get us used to the theory behind it etc, so we had to use the equations and do everything the long drawn out way then. However, once you know how to use SPSS you will never be working stuff out by hand again and if you have a good grasp of how to use SPSS and how to interpret the output then your knowledge of maths really doesn't need to be that good. I think it's important to go through the process and have some idea of how the stats work and why so that you have a good grasp of what you're doing, but to be honest I bet most people using SPSS wouldn't be able to do any of it by hand any more anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about it! Best, KB

sneaks!!!! thanks for that link you posted. From there I could find others too. THANKS!!!!
satchi :-)