UNSW SYDNEY 
MATH1041: Statistics for Life and Social Sciences 
Comprehensive Study and Exam Preparation Guide 2026 
 
- Part 01. Revision Notes 
- Part 02. Exam Practice Questions and Answers 
- Part 03. Sample Examination Paper 
- Part 04. Suggested Solutions to Examination Paper 
 
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UNSW Sydney

Statistics for Life and Social Sciences - MATH1041 (UNSW Sydney)

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ACADEMIC YEAR 2025 - 2026

University	UNSW Sydney
Study Level	Undergraduate
Course Code	MATH1041
Course Name	Statistics for Life and Social Sciences
Notes Title	Comprehensive Study and Exam Prep Guide
Page Length	68

This guide provides a comprehensive summary of the key concepts covered in MATH1041: Statistics for Life and Social Sciences at UNSW Sydney. It highlights the essential information you need to understand and apply the course material effectively, helping you build a solid grasp of the core methods and techniques. These features are specifically designed to help you apply your knowledge in the exam. You do not need to be an expert in the course; you just need a basic understanding and the ability to quickly recall what you have learned. Use these notes as a reference to strengthen your understanding topic by topic and improve your grades in the final exam.

Course Description:

This course is for undergraduate students of life and social sciences. It is not intended for students who propose to study a substantial amount of statistics beyond first-year level. Students are assumed to have received a mark of at least 60 in HSC Mathematics Advanced or at least 70 in HSC Mathematics Standard or equivalent.

The course first introduces the concepts on which statistics is built, namely: Descriptive statistics: exploring the data using numerical and graphical summaries; Study designs and sampling; Probability and independence; Discrete distributions: the binomial distribution. Continuous distributions: the normal, t and chi-square distributions. Random variables: calculating the mean and variance. Building on those, the second part of the course presents techniques for making inference about the population from a sample, that is, using confidence intervals and tests of hypotheses: z-test, t-test and Chi-squared test for statistical independence. Linear regression: correlation, residuals, estimation and prediction.

Technology is used throughout the course: Students will use the R software to analyse datasets.

Course Aims:

The aim of this course is to provide a foundation in statistics to students who will not extend their statistics study beyond this course. The aim of this of this course is to equip students with the tools needed to design a study, to collect, analyse and interpret data, which is fundamental to any form of quantitative research.

Relationship to Other Courses:

This course is primarily aimed at students intending to pursue a major in a field involving quantitative research (hence knowledge of introductory statistics is essential) but for which higher-level mathematics or statistics is not essential. Maths courses MATH1231, MATH1241, or MATH1251 are pre-requisites for many later year mathematics courses, so if you have an interest in pursuing further study in mathematics or statistics, you should consider whether MATH1041 is the right course for you.

It is possible to study higher-level statistics courses after completing MATH1031 and MATH1041, provided that you received at least a credit grade in MATH1031. However, if you wish to complete a Major in Statistics, you will be better prepared if you study MATH1131 and MATH1231 (or MATH1141 and MATH1241 Higher Mathematics), as most of our Statistics major students do.

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ACCT2511	Financial Accounting Fundamentals
ACCT2522	Management Accounting for Decision Analysis
ACCT2542	Corporate Financial Reporting and Analysis
ACTL1101	Introduction to Actuarial Studies
ECON1102	Macroeconomics 1
ECON2101	Microeconomics 2
ECON2206	Introductory Econometrics
ECON2209	Business Forecasting
ECON3208	Applied Econometric Methods
FINS1613	Business Finance
FINS2618	Capital Markets and Institutions
FINS2624	Portfolio Management
FINS3625	Applied Corporate Finance
FINS3635	Options, Futures and Risk Management
FINS3636	Interest Rate Risk Management
FINS5511	Corporate Finance
FINS5535	Derivatives and Risk Management Techniques
MARK2012	Marketing Fundamentals
MATH1041	Statistics for Life and Social Sciences
MGMT2004	Managing Organisational Behaviour
TABL2710	Business and the Law
TABL2751	Business Taxation

Statistics for Life and Social Sciences - MATH1041 (UNSW Sydney)

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