The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself.
Traue keiner Statistik, die du nicht selbst gefälscht hast.

Yesterday I wrote the final exam in Analysis of Financial Data. The course confirmed my uncertainty about statistics. Some topics seemed really obvious and straightforward, while others failed to enlighten my mind. Anyway, the course offered a good opportunity to refresh and extend my statistical knowledge in general and my SPSS skills in particular. Who knows, maybe I need that stuff later on. Did you know that log returns have better statistical properties than normal close prices?

But actually I wanted to write about the exams here in Umea in general. I just realised that I have never been pressed for time here. In Germany it is quite normal that you have to work extremely fast to meet the deadline. This can of course affect the quality of your answers, but on the other hand you are forced to fulfil tasks in a given time – the way you have to work in the real world… Sweden’s attitude towards time seems to be a bit different (no, I won’t write about permanent Fikas here). I still don’t know if I should call it equal opportunities or rather naivety…

• Yesterday’s exam: 5 hours – I went home after 2.
• Swedish language exams: 3 hours, you normally don’t even need half of them.
• Some last term’s exams: Work as long as you want!

Something really cool about exams in Umea is Östra Paviljongen: A whole building just for the exams! Separate toilets for each room, a “glassy box” for smokers, single tables for every student. Der Kommissar published an excellent photo story about that topic last semester. Still worth reading!

BTW: There are some rumours about the introducing quotation of this post. Wanna read about Winston Churchill and the Nazis?