statistics -- the important stuff

[spinnendehase]

I'm finishing up my prerequisites before starting grad school in the fall. Statistics is one of my classes, and I'm finding it really hard to do everything I have to do for all 4 of my classes this summer. So my question is -- and I think a current grad student would have the most insight into this -- what is the truly important stuff that I'll need to know in statistics for grad school, assuming I might be writing a research paper?

 

Obviously there's the basic stuff like understanding a bell curve, and percentiles, etc., but what about stuff like probability computations??  I have to pass statistics, but at this point I don't think it makes sense to kill myself trying to learn everything in my statistics book. I have serious doubts that I'll need all of that information -- but at the same time I'm not sure what exactly I'll need to know.

[JFFA]

Some good topics to cover usually include regression, t-tests, and analysis of variance. I'm  forgetting some other topics too, but my point it you most likely don't need to know the whole book, but definitely quite a bit more than just a bell curve if you want to be a good clinician because to be a good clinician you must be able to interpret research. In terms of understanding test results, percentiles and bell curves are key but in terms of research they won't do much good when trying to prove your argument. Basically, you want to understand statistics enough to determine if a methods/intervention/etc that was tested is really effective. Since evidence based practice is so stressed these days, it is vital to be able to analyze other's research and if conducting your own to determine if what you are trying is a valid practice (really effective).  

[spinnendehase]

Thank you, that's helpful. Basically everything you mentioned is towards the end of the book, so I guess I'll just have to hang in there!