Chapter 10 Final Reflection

This course challenged me in ways I did not expect. At the beginning of the semester, working in R often felt overwhelming, frustrating, and at times discouraging. I spent a lot of time stuck on errors I did not understand, second-guessing my code, and wondering whether I was really “getting it.” Each assignment pushed me to persist through confusion and gradually build confidence in my ability.

One of the most difficult aspects of the course was learning how to manage complex projects from start to finish. Many of the datasets were large and messy, and the analyses required careful data cleaning, recoding, and validation before any statistical testing could even begin. Debugging code took patience, and I learned that rushing often created more problems than it solved.

By the end of the course, I was able to (somewhat) design full analyses, choose appropriate statistical methods, and clearly communicate results using visualizations, tables, and written interpretation. Projects such as the crime analyses, wage prediction model, and NYC 311 exploration helped me see how data analysis can be used to understand real-world social issues.

R still feels intimidating, but not impossible. This book represents more than completed assignments—it reflects persistence, growth, and the anxiety felt along the way. While I know there is still much more to learn, I feel a bit more prepared to if need be, but I would love to never have to use R ever again.