Why is it important to study statistics? It is a tool that helps people in a wide range of contexts to answer questions of importance to them.
Examples of context
Here are a few scenarios in which people from different application areas have questions that statistics can help answer.
Statistics supplies useful information to people whose main area of expertise is not statistics. The underlying context is therefore the most important aspect of any statistical analysis.
If you are not primarily a statistician, you may only appreciate statistical methods when they are needed later in your career!
Context in CAST
It is easy to miss the importance of statistics if you have no personal interest in the context of the data sets that you use. The best we can do is to expose you to a wide range of data and contexts and assure you that the same statistical methods will be equally useful for analysing data of real interest to you later.