BioStatsLab

Please note the following dates for the exams:

Main exam: 12.02.2027 in E1.3, HS 001, 09:00-12:00
Re-take exam: 16.03.2027 in E1.3, HS 001, 14:00 - 17:00

Exams are closed book, an official "cheat sheet" (that will be available well before exam dates) is handed out with the problems. No other "helpers" are allowed. Cheat attempts result in immediate failure and, in case of a repeated attempt, can lead to exmatriculation and loss of the ability to study. Note that problem sets may be individualized in exams.

Again, there is an optional mock exam during the official lecture time, last lecture slot before the Christmas holidays, 18.12., from 12:15 to 13:45.

Information

1. We have put slides for a brief bash/conda/python tutorial online that explains how to install and use the conda package manager to create isolated environments (collections of packages) for running Python for the BioStatsLab course. There is also a file "environment.yml", which specifies the packages you want to install. "conda env create" shoud do the job when the file is present.

2. Lecture slides from today (administrative business; Lecture 01-01) are online, and also the first exercise sheet (officially released tomorrow, but why not have an extra day).

Exam Preparation

As said in the lecture, the course is fast-paced, so please stay on top, do spend (much!) time on the exercises, and prioritize this one over advanced courses that might be better taken in later semesters. To help you, we will run a mock exam on the Friday before the Christmas holidays during the normal lecture time. You may or may not take it, pass or fail, there will be a grade on it, but it will not be recorded, it is just for your own information on how you are doing with the material.

As also said today, there are no prerequisites for the exam, but I can almost guarantee that if you do not work continuously on the material and exercises, the probability to fail the exam is 90%. This are empirical values from past semesters. Phrased positively: If you keep up with the material and exercises every week (and know how to solve them by yourself without LLM help), your chances of passing are very high.

We are aware that there is a time conflict with Single Cell Bioinformatics. However, the times of BioStatsLab are not flexible; they are synchronized with MInf 3, and these are fixed times for the last 10+ years and they will stay fixed until the Bachelor structure of all CS programs changes (maybe in the far future). So please be aware of two things.

1. The proper 3rd math course to take in the BSc Bioinformatics program is BioStatsLab, not Mathematics for Informatics 3! It should be taken in parallel to Bioinformatics 1 in the 3rd semester. In the 3rd semester, Single Cell Bioinformatics should not be taken. Leave it to later.

2. For Master students who take BioStatsLab, it makes absolutely sense to focus on BioStatsLab first and take advanced courses like Single Cell Bioinformatics in a later year, once you have the statistical foundations.

So in reality, these two lectures are not in conflict. If you want to argue for different scheduling though, for whatever reason, ask Single Cell Bioinformatics to be at a different time. Thank you for your understanding.