Changes to the Core Reading and Use of R

Discussion in 'CS2' started by Shiksha, Dec 1, 2018.

  1. Shiksha

    Shiksha Member

    Hi everyone,

    I purchased the study material for subjects CT4 and CT6 in April 2018 and September 2018 respectively, so I wanted to clarify if there are any changes to the core reading for subject CS2. Do I have to buy the new study material for subject CS2 for the April 2019 exams?

    Also, as I understand CS2B will be an online exam that requires us to use R to answer the questions. Does anyone know the level of knowledge of the programming language required to solve those questions? Do we have to have advanced knowledge of it or undertaking a basic course will do? I am not familiar with the programming language at all so can someone guide me on how I should prepare for the online exam? If I should take some course online or will the Institute provide some classes for the same?

    Thanks,
    Shiksha
     
  2. Admin

    Admin Administrator Staff Member

    Hi,
    We recommend that you use the new CS2 material. CS2 isn't simply CT4 plus CT6. Some of that content has gone into other subjects and there are some new chapters as well as some material from ST9. Perhaps have a look at the new CS2 study guide at https://acted.co.uk/paper_study_guide.html.
    Our new CMP includes some Paper B Online Resources (PBOR) which should help you prepare for the R paper. It includes an introduction to R section. If you find you need some more help with R then there re plenty of free resources online.
    Good luck
    A
     
  3. Hi Shikha,
    Below are few points to note:-
    1. You need to know installation and interface of R (in general to begin any new software)
    2. R supports more than 6000 packages and all packages use BASE package. Hence you need to know most of concepts of base R.
    3. Need not to master of base package to use R, but we need most of it.
    4. "survival" is the another package that you need to know for CS2
    5. But using "survival" alone would be very tedious hence you need other dependent packages like 'survminer' and others !!!

    It is always a good practice to list your functions used in packages and make a flow chart of Analysis.
    For example:-
    1.'survival' is used for Survival analysis.
    2. Need to know how to create object with function 'surv()'
    3. use this object for kaplan-Meire analysis using function 'survfit()'
    etc...

    Please note nature of "plot" function behaves differently in base package and differently in 'survival'. Hence need to practice in such a way that you know what are you performing and in which environment you are performing your code.

    Hope it will help you.

    Cheers !!!
    Niranjan
     

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