Required Skills

Quantitative Skills Requirements

Two of your Fall semester core courses require particular knowledge of quantitative skills:

Data and Decisions (MBA 200S)

Required Skills

Students are expected to be familiar before the first day of class with the material in the first 12 chapters of the required textbook: Statistics for Business: Decision Making and Analysis, Stine and Foster, (3rd Edition, Pearson, 2018). Students should also be familiar with basic commands in Excel, including the data analysis tool pack.

This course assumes prior knowledge of the skills listed below and will immediately begin building on them.

This is a difficult course for students who do not have a strong quant background. You are strongly encouraged to attend the Data and Decisions Core Prep Workshop in August in preparation for this course. You should also do at least one of the following:

  • Take a summer course in probability and statistics at a local college or university.
  • Review the material in the MBA Quantitative Skills course (information sent from the Haas Admissions Office)
  • Read and work through the problems in the first 12 chapters of the required textbook (MBA 200S): Statistics for Business: Decision Making and Analysis, Stine and Foster, (3rd Edition, Pearson, 2018. ISBN:9780134497167).

Data
  • Data Tables
  • Categorical and Numerical Data
  • Recoding and Aggregation
  • Time Series
  • Further Attributes of Data
Describing Numerical Data
  • Looking at Data
  • Charts of Categorical Data
  • The Area Principle
  • Mode and Median
  • Summaries of Numerical Variables
  • Histograms
  • Boxplot
  • Shape of Distribution
  • Epilog
Association between Categorical Variables
  • Contingency Tables
  • Lurking Variables and Simpson's Paradox
  • Strength of Association
Association between Quantitative Variables
  • Scatterplots
  • Association in Scatterplots
  • Measuring Association
  • Summarizing Association with a Line
  • Spurious Correlation
Probability
  • From Data to Probability
  • Rules for Probability
  • Independent Events
Conditional Probability
  • From Tables of Probabilities
  • Dependent Events
  • Organizing Probabilities
  • Order in Conditional Probabilities
Random Variables
  • Random Variables
  • Properties of Random Variables
  • Properties of Expected Values
Association between Random Variables
  • Portfolios and Random Variables
  • Joint Probability Distribution
  • Sums of Random Variables
  • Dependence between Random Variables
  • IID Random Variables
  • Weighted Sums
Probability Models for Counts
  • Random Variables for Counts
  • Binomial Model
  • Properties of Binomials Random Variables
  • Poisson Model
The Normal Probability Model
  • Normal Random Variable
  • The Normal Model
  • Percentiles
  • Departures from Normality

Microeconomics (MBA 201)

Required Skills

This course assumes prior knowledge of these skills, and will immediately begin building on them:

  • Basic spreadsheet skills
  • Solving a system of two linear equations
  • Graphing linear and quadratic functions
  • Measuring the area under a linear function
  • Determining the rate of change of a function at a point
  • Differentiating a single-variable function
  • Identifying the maxima and minima of a function
  • Ability to use probabilities and outcomes to calculate means (averages)

Microsoft Excel Skill Requirements

Excel proficiency is expected of all Haas students. You should be comfortable with the Excel features and functions listed below. For any students unfamiliar with the items below, we strongly encourage you to attend our Excel prep workshops taking place in early August.

Create a Workbook
  • Create a new workbook
  • Add and delete sheets within a Workbook
  • Cut, paste, and copy cells, rows, and columns
  • Name a cell or a range of cells for future reference
  • Working with large datasets
  • Protecting and sharing data
  • Printing options and shortcuts
Formatting
  • Changing width of columns and height of rows
  • Bold, underlining and other font formatting
  • Conditional formatting
  • Shading, outlining
Formulas
  • Using basic formulas (e.g. SUM, AVERAGE and IF)
  • MAX and MIN functions
  • Reference other cells in the same and other worksheets
  • Auditing and printing formulas
Graphs
  • Create and manipulate graphs and charts
  • Use the Chart Wizard
  • Label and customize graphs or charts
  • Dynamic graphs
Data Manipulation
  • Sort data
  • Group and ungroup data
  • Pivot Tables
  • Using the "Solver" tool
  • Data Analysis