David Yew Tien Ren, a Year 1 student from Singapore Management University (SMU) School of Social Sciences, has clinched Silver at the 2025 global Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUS A-Mu-Sing Competition, with his original, high-octane music video entitled, “P-value’s more than alpha”.
Internationally recognised for blending statistical rigour with creative expression, the biennial A-Mu-Sing competition organised by CAUSE encourages fun and innovative approaches to teaching statistics. Together with the Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition (USPROC), it fosters creativity and excellence among budding statisticians worldwide, and receives entries of statistics-themed songs, poems, videos, jokes, cartoons in multiple categories from students, teachers, educators from across the world.
Now in its tenth edition, winning submissions are featured at the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics with the winners awarded cash prizes. The A-mu-sing contest entries are judged anonymously by a panel of seasoned statistics educators based on criteria including content, originality, pedagogical value, and student-friendliness. David’s musical grasp of statistical inference earned praise from Professor Dennis Pearl, Director of CAUSE and Professor at Penn State University.
David won in the “Sung Heroes” category, under the hand of Ms Rosie Ching, Principal Lecturer of Statistics at SMU’s School of Economics. He created a catchy video, fusing all the elements of the Statistics-X course, with creative panache, unforgettable wordplay and infectious musical flair on hypothesis testing, taking viewers and listeners alike on a blistering tour of p-values, null hypotheses, tests, confidence intervals, correlation, and ANOVA, weaving in the historic legends of Galton, Bayes, Pearson, Gosset, and Fisher, all heavyweight statistical presences in Ms Ching’s classes.
“The judges really liked the song and video David submitted to the A-Mu-Sing competition and we plan to play the video at the upcoming US Conference On Teaching Statistics,” said Professor Pearl.
A leap of faith that started his winning entry
Thanking Ms Ching, David said: “It all began with Ms Ching telling us about the Stat-X finale, the end-of-year performance and statistical lecture given by the students to World Toilet Organisation, Public Hygiene Council, Singapore Kindness Movement and Restroom Association Singapore about the findings of Waterloo 2024, an SMU study on the cleanliness of toilets in Singapore. Roles in the performance finale would be assigned to students who auditioned best for them. Ms Ching also showed many songs created by herself and her previous students.
As someone who personally enjoys making creative projects, I decided to challenge myself. With my limited video editing skills, I decided to create a Statistics song as my audition. Inspired by the parodies made by my seniors, I decided to make a song to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We didn’t start the fire”. The lyrics incorporated elements of the classes, activities and experiments conducted over the course of the term. To inject humour, I donned black with sunglasses to look like Billy Joel in his original music video. My good friend Anika recorded short videos of me dancing at various locations around SMU. After hours of editing, I pieced together what my friends have dubbed “The highest effort, lowest budget, and most entertaining statistics video” they have ever seen.”
David proceeded to submit the video and was pleasantly surprised when Ms Ching commended his effort. Casting David as an emcee at the Waterloo 2024 finale, she played the video he had developed and got him to dance as Napolean. Thereafter, with Ms Ching’s guidance, David adjusted the video to make it more universal and submitted it to CAUSE’s A-Mu-Sing competition, clinching second prize in the global competition.
Turning effort into impact
Reflecting on the experience, David commented: “I am very grateful to Ms Ching, CAUSE, my friends and Stat-X peers. If there was a single takeaway from this whole experience, it would be that first principle and promise Ms Ching gives, “No effort will go unnoticed”. If you put a lot of effort into a well-chosen venture, you will be surprised by the results.”
This is the second time that one of Ms Ching’s students had secured a major win at the global A-Mu-Sing Competition. In 2023, her statistics students took home the Silver with “Stats,” which they had composed as a gift to her. This time, David’s solo triumph marked another high note in statistics education at SMU.
“David's win makes me incredibly proud,” said Ms Ching. “When I watched his video, my eyes popped and my heart was full, seeing how much dedication and soul he poured into it. With a few refinements, we made it completely universal, educational and powerful. It is rare to see such a video made of a statistics course, and this one is a true keeper. David deserves all that he has worked so hard for and I am blessed to know him as my student and to have worked with him.”
Here is David’s winning song entry, titled “P-Value’s More Than Alpha”:
Lyrics:
Verse 1:
A sample observation
Of the whole population
Statistic of parameter, variable
These are the basics
You learn in statistics
Data is numerical or categorical
Classified, logical
Nominal and ordinal
Numerical we meet
Continuous, discrete
Interval, ratio
Graphs is what you must know
Histogram, scatterplot
Bar, Pie and Pareto
Chorus:
P-value’s more than alpha
If the P is low we know the null would go but
P-value’s more than alpha
Since the P is high we know the null will fly
Verse 2:
Z test, have a try
True proportion is π
Given n, ps, and one sample
Null is your H0, H1 is if null is not
Alpha at 5% significance level
n and ps multiply
CLT to satisfy
To check for normality
Test distribution justify
Sample size is large
Now’s the critical charge
Test statistic, write Z
Let’s find out if the
Chorus:
P-value’s more than alpha
If the P is low we know the null would go but
P-value’s more than alpha
If the P is high we know the null will fly
Verse 3:
Reject or not, P will guide,
Left or right or two-a-side
Have the skew and tail be done
Makes for a different H1
Visualise, draw the graph
Is the evidence enough?
See the data you’ve got
What’s π Under H0?
Calculate Z score and then
Check the formula again
If you’re still cynical
Confidence interval
Check the corresponding table
P-value now you’re able
See if it’s significant
Make your final statement!
Chorus:
P-value’s more than alpha
If the P is low we know the null would go but
P-value’s more than alpha
Since the P is high we know the null will fly
Verse 4:
If ANOVA must be done
F distribution may abound
Is a relationship there,
Independence, chi Square
O, E, Column Row, CLT’s a no-go
If sigma you don’t know
T will come and steal the show
Are points near a line or far
What’s the correlation R?
If the fit supports a line
Slope and r will share the sign
Chorus:
P-value’s more than alpha
If the P is low we know the null would go but
P-value’s more than alpha
If the P is high we know the null will fly
Verse 5:
Sir Francis Galton
Analysed trends regression
Galton’s Board, the balls fall fast
Bell curve forms as they amass
Thomas Bayes, prior information
Karl Pearson, correlation,
Chi-Square maps relations great
Carl Gauss found the Bell Curve shape!
Maurice Kramer, John Tukey,
Post-hoc pairwise scrutiny
Gosset’s t test gave him fame
Student was his fake name!
Fisher did Exact Test
No assumptions, samples small
Randomisation is key,
When the Lady’s Tasting Tea!
Chorus:
P-value’s more than alpha
If the P is low we know the null would go but
P-value’s more than alpha
Since the P is high we know the null will fly
(till fade)
Photo credit: David Yew, Rosie Ching
