When it comes to statistical analysis,
the students are required to work really hard and make sure they complete their
assignments the right way using the best software that enable them to succeed
in their class. There are many students who are unable to use the available
software because they are too expensive and they cannot afford to purchase
them.
Before getting to know about the
software that can be used for statistical analysis, it is necessary to know
what statistical analysis is all about and how these projects should be dealt
with. In simple words, statistical analysis a component of data analytics. When
we talk about business intelligence, statistical analysis involves collecting and scrutinizing
every data sample in a set of items from which samples can be drawn. When we
talk about statistical terms, it is a representative selection drawn from a
total population. Statistics is closely related to our lives and it is used in
homes to businesses and even in our educational institutes where students use
it to come up with data and analysis.
Students need to know that
statics is a branch of mathematics that deals with the collection, analysis,
interpretation, presentation, and organization of data. When we apply statics to any
field be it scientific, industrial, or social, it is important to begin with a
statistical population or a statistical model process to be studies. Statistics deals with all aspects of data
including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments.
What is Statistical Analysis and
Why it Needs Software
Statistical analysis can be
defined as the science of collecting, exploring and presenting large amounts of
data to discover underlying patterns and trends. Statistics are applied on
daily basis in research, industry and government to get more scientific
decisions that need to be made.
Even though Microsoft Excel
can be used as basic statistical analysis software, yet it does not provide
assistance to a more serious analysis user who needs specialized software such
as SPSS, Eviews or Stata. These programs are expensive and not everyone can
afford to get them easily. Fortunately, there are plenty of free alternatives
that can be used and they provide equally good results for students. Here is a
list of the most popular free software for statistical analysis.
The R Project for Statistical Computing
R is the most widely used free
statistical environment and it can be used for various type of analysis as it
has a large community and numerous packages. Learning to use it requires a bit
of programming knowledge from students but there are plenty of tutorials and
online courses available that will help students out in this time. It is highly
recommended free software as it is slowly becoming the standard in many
professional data analytics communities.
PSPP
This is a free alternative for
SPSS, and a mature project that can be used very effectively for regression
analysis, non-parametric tests, T-tests, cluster analysis and lot more. It supports
over 1 billion variables and it can be used for statistical analysis by
students very easily.
Gretl
this is another free software
for statistical analysis and a free alternative to Eviews. It can be used for a
wide range of econometric analyses, data series and regression just the way
students want it.
MicrOsiris
MicrOsiris is a lightweight
freeware as it can perform all sorts of data analysis most competently.
Regressit
This is one completely free
add-in for Excel and it can be used for multivariate descriptive data analysis
and multiple linear regression analysis.
MacAnova
MacAnova was developed by a
group of experts at the University of Minnesota and it can be used very
effectively for statistical analysis and matrix algebra for all the students
who need free edition for statistical analysis.
GNU Octave
This tool is an excellent
alternative to Matlab. It be used for multiple numerical computations as well
as it great data visualization assistance.
This tool is a successor to a
couple of other statistical environments. It can be used the right way for
mathematical analysis, visualization and much more making it easy for students
to focus on all their statistical analysis tasks free of cost.
Finding the best as well as
the cheapest software for statistical analysis becomes too tough for students
because they will not know if it will work the right way or not. These free
software for statistical analysis help students complete their assignments and
succeed the right way in their class.