At the end of last year I was losing faith in my ability to study Data Science. Even though I had had a good first contact week, the material was incredibly difficult for me to understand. Following that, I wanted to work hard on my maths, but really had to start at a much lower point Read More
Data Science
Getting Up To Speed For Data Science: Maths
As I mentioned in previous posts, I’ve just finished my second contact week with the Uni for my apprenticeship and I am re-motivated to learn. The maths is the thing that has me the most stumped, so I’m going to take charge and stop hoping that the material I’m struggling with will suddenly make sense. Luckily, Read More
Data Science Contact Week 2: Finished!
Today marks the end of my second contact week for my Data Science apprenticeship. My main takeaway is the same as last time, I should not be so worried about being behind, if I just put in the hours, I’ll be fine. After this week, I can even envision myself getting ahead as we now have Read More
I Underestimated Data Science
I didn’t realise I was going to have to learn Linear Algebra and Calculus for this degree. It was silly of me really to so far underestimate what I would need to learn. From what I had read online, python or r can do all the work for you, you just need to learn the language Read More
Learning Maths Can Be Better
When I was in school, maths was boring. We had textbooks with formulas and rules and the teachers would just walk through the exercises step by step. The closest we got to being engaged was when a teacher asked us to answer questions. No wonder we switched off. To me, the two biggest crimes in teaching Read More
Data Science Contact Week 1: Finished!
My first face to face contact week with the university professors is over. In some ways I’m relieved because the hours have been long, as has the commute, and the work has been tiring. But I will also miss it, because I’ve enjoyed the structured learning as well as collaborating and bonding with fellow students. I’ve Read More
Getting Ready For Data Science
Yesterday I got my student number from the University that I am doing my Data Science apprenticeship with and I am so excited! Honestly, I thought I had missed my chance to do a degree and resigned myself to never having one. I’ve done okay for myself and I was quite sure that I didn’t need Read More
From Excel To Data Science
Today I was doing plenty of data prep stuff in Excel using Power Query, and waiting for it to load my changes over and over again. While I was waiting, I had an idea: could I transition my Excel work over to R? I found this: https://medium.com/district-data-labs/how-to-transition-from-excel-to-r-f9304fabcbab And this: So it seems very realistic for me Read More
Linear Algebra For Dummies
It’s interesting how different things with the same names can be. Linear Algebra in maths is scary and complicated. I’ve looked up so many courses, but even the “beginner” ones are intimidating. So when you start looking into Data Science and Machine Learning, spotting Linear Algebra lurking in the course content can cause worry. But it Read More
Linear Algebra With R
Another Linear Algebra post! And why not, I’ve been playing with it more and more lately. I haven’t become super advanced in using it, I can’t tell you how it works just yet. What I can tell you is that learning R on Datacamp will give you some great basics in Linear Algebra. In fact, it Read More