It has been a while since my last blog entry. Today, I want to document my thought process on how I created a Python program that would generate a step-by-step solution to Statistics worded problems.
It started with a why: "Why should I automate the writing of solutions to Statistics problems?" My first reason was that I encounter certain problems in the tutoring platform that are frequently recurring. Only the givens in the problem changes but the steps are all the same. This means that every time I encounter these problems, I have to re-type the procedure with all the LaTeX formatting involved in certain formulas. And, that is somewhat frustrating. Time is gold has never been this real to me. And the time I spend on one problem means a delay in solving other problems. The delay means decreased revenue on my part since I can solve only a limited number of problems within a day.
Because of this frustration, I thought of an idea. "What if I create an MS Excel or Word Document template that I will just copy and paste and then input the associated given in the problem?" This way I will be more efficient. I proceeded to make an MS Excel document. Here is an example of a probability calculator when given a contingency table.
What I did next is to create a template so that writing the procedure would be minimized, and all I need to do is insert the associated tables/pictures within the procedure. Here is an example of the template for linear regression analysis.
The next challenge for me was to make the template adaptive. What I mean by this is, whenever a related problem comes along how fast can the template generate the step-by-step solutions for me. Currently, it was not so fast. At least, not in the way I intended it to be. There are still times when I struggle to use the template which makes it a little non-user friendly. I am the one who made the template so how much more if I teach this template to others. If I am struggling, it follows that they will also struggle. There are still a significant number of manual inputs involved.
There's no other way. I have to muster the courage to journey into the unknown. I have to learn how to code. I have already encountered this on Youtube before but I just let it slide since I don't have much use to it back then. I mean my job does not involve programming so there is no urgent need to learn it. But it did give me a spark for the possibility of learning something new.
And so, I dedicated minutes and hours each day trying to learn this. I remember spending at least a minimum of 20 minutes every day. 20 minutes trying to understand the theory of the lesson and applying the knowledge I learned on some practical exercises on the video. 20 minutes since sometimes I get drained by the information that was presented to me. And each day, for 20 minutes or more, the possibility and opportunity became more and more evident. I can do this!
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