Anyone doing MSc Health data science?

The course director emailed me 4 days after applying asking me to take a programming test. I did that two weeks ago and got the offer a while after

Yeah I just got an email this evening to complete it. Would you say the test difficulty/format is similar to the example sheet?

When are you doing the test?

Yeah I just got an email this evening to complete it. Would you say the test difficulty/format is similar to the example sheet

Yeah similar to the sheet, what other masters have you applied to?

Same course at LSHTM and statistics at Warwick.

Not really sure what to expect in terms of decisions, especially for funded (or at least partially funded) studentships. LSHTM have 4 fully funded places and an additional 2 partially funded, which I think it actually quite a lot considering there's a max of around 20 on the course and studentships are only available to UK/EU students.

Ah right good luck!

I've got an offer from UCL and Imperial for health data science so I'm just trying to narrow down which one I want between the 3

Guys how would you recommend someone in the medical field can learn more about data science etc. (with no background in this or stats)?

I would say the best way to learn data science based on your background (esp with no stats) is an online course (even free ones like on edX) where you learn by doing which is more oriented towards coding rather than the actual stats element.

However, if you have enough time then starting from a more mathematical perspective will be more useful (although I am biased). Data science is mostly built from stats, which is built from probability and the latter two applies mathematical concepts.

Thank you, this is great advice. How involved do you think the maths/stats gets? I did stats 1 & 2 in A-level but unsure how feasible it would be to even get back to that level given time pressures.

If you did S1 and S2, and then obviously did A-level maths, then you shouldn't actually have a problem with it all!

In terms of how involved the maths/stats gets it really depends if you're referring to this course or learning data science. This course by the looks of things does have a significant maths component, so I would brush up on your calculus and maybe consider learning some linear algebra. S1 and S2 probably cover enough stats, but understanding hypothesis testing again is probably important. A very light introduction to linear regressions could also prove useful!

If you're pressed for time, you could do some simple online coding/machine learning courses alongside some reading of the mathematical underpinnings, maybe when something new crops up.

'A modern introduction to probability and statistics' by Dekking et al is very good, available for free online and covers all prob/stats to know!
'The elements of statistical learning' by Hastie et al is excellent, free online and applies what is covered by Dekking to machine learning/data science.

Other great resources are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uW3qMFA9Ho&list=PLUl4u3cNGP60hI9ATjSFgLZpbNJ7myAg6 covering probability
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPZD_aij8H0&list=PLUl4u3cNGP60uVBMaoNERc6knT_MgPKS0 covering statistics

Dude! Thank you so much!

I did s1/s2 but almost a decade ago now! I did Maths A-level stuff early too for ease which makes it harder now. I didn't realise the course involved calculus. So it seems I can't get very far without getting the maths books out again, I'm willing to do it if this isn't like studying for a new degree (given time pressure otherwise why not?!).

Also the YouTube MIT course you linked requires one to do a background maths course (18.01 Single Variable Calculus and 18.02 Multivariable Calculus) - do you think its worth having a look at those or should I jump straight into it?

No worries! I wouldn't get too worried about the calculus, the course looks like it will cover it but if you have time it might be worthwhile to have a refresher of basic differentiation and integration at some point in the future.

I would just get straight to coding tbh, you probably won't encounter much stats/maths until you get past basic programming tasks and looking at the course entry requirements I think programming skills is really the only thing you need due to your previous background in medicine

Yeah similar to the sheet, what other masters have you applied to?

Hey, I'm applying to Health Data Analytics and Machine Learning at imperial and Health Data science at UCL. I had no idea there was a programming sheet you need to do? Could you explain what this is about and what I should go over. I'm just waiting for applications to open to send mine in for 2021 entry. Thank you