The following is a list of online resources that might be useful preparation for the UBC MDS program. Completion of these courses does not replace the official program prerequisites. Rather, this page is mainly intended for entering students who may wish to reinforce their preparation before the program starts. Many of these resources can also be helpful resources during the program. Highly recommended items are in bold.
Disclaimer: We have not vetted all these resources ourselves, but rather selected them based on a combination of our experience, recommendation from colleagues, and the resources descriptions. If you have feedback about them, please let us know.
Python
- Programming for Everybody: online book & Youtube lectures by Chuck Severance
- Beginner tutorial, OOP programming: Series of Youtube tutorials by Corey Shaffer
- Python Data Science Handbook: book by Jake VanderPlas
- Codeacademy Learn Python 3: Codecademy online course with a free trial
- Python Principles (learning basics via coding): Python Principles online course
- Programming in Python for Data Science: online course open lectures by Michael Gelbart, Hayley Boyce and Tiffany Timbers
R
- Data Science: A First Introduction: book by Tiffany Timbers, Trevor Campbell and Melissa Lee
- R for Data Science: book by Hadley Wickham, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel and Garett Grolemund
- R Programming: Coursera online course from Johns Hopkins U.
Statistics and Probability
- Fat Chance: Probability from the Ground Up: edX online course from Harvard U.
- Introduction to Probability and Data with R: Coursera online course from Duke U.
- Basic Statistics: Coursera online course from University of Amsterdam
Calculus
- (Highly recommended) Essence of calculus: YouTube series by Grant Sanderson
- Calculus One: Coursera online course from The Ohio State University
- Calculus: Single Variable, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3: Coursera online course from U. Pennsylvania
- Calculus 1, Differentiation and Integration: edX online course from MIT
Linear algebra
- (Highly recommended) Essence of linear algebra: YouTube series by Grant Sanderson
- MIT A 2020 Vision of Linear Algebra, Spring 2020: Youtube video by Gilbert Strang
- Immersive linear algebra: interactive e-book by J. Ström, K. Åström, and T. Akenine-Möller
- Linear Algebra Refresher Course with Python: Udacity online course
- Introduction to Linear Algebra for Applied Machine Learning with Python: Blog by Pablo Caceres
Scientific Communication
- Writing Resources: online course from UBC
- Writing in the Sciences: Coursera online course from Standford U. (free to audit)
General
- StatQuest, introductory intuition of many statistical topics through entertaining videos.
- An Introduction to Statistical Learning, introductory theory and intuition with applications in both R and Python.
- 3Blue1Brown, similar to StatQuest but more focus on Math and deeper explanations.
- A comprehensive list of data science textbooks curated by an MDS alum.