I agree wholeheartedly with the closing comments here --
who would not? -- but in my experience the only satisfactory
exercises are based on data that mean something to the
students, either their "own" data or data that you
have introduced to them. This requires some action by the
teacher. In any case, setting a few exercises is a
comparatively trivial matter if you are on top of the
subject yourself, as a teacher clearly should be.
>>> Raphael Fraser <[email protected]>
I have a complaint about introductory Stata books. Recently, I have
been searching for "intro to Stata" books to teach masters level
students how to use Stata. Of the two intro books at Stata's book
store none had EXERCISES to reinforce concepts. Why should I buy a
book and create my own exercises? I feel cheated. While these books
meet the objective of 'illustrating' how to use some commands they
fail to reinforce concepts. Have anyone ever seen a statistics text
book without problems at the end of each chapter? Why is that? Because
Statistics authors know that their students will never fully
understand certain concepts until they attempt to solve problems
themselves. Why should Stata's intro books be different? If authors
are serious about Stata then there must be problems at the end of each
chapter. We all know that seeing something done is not enough.
Students will never learn Stata until they actually attempt some task
in Stata.
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