Accuracy and the error rate

53 min
Block 15 — The classification metrics
Objective
define accuracy and its complement the error rate from the confusion matrix and make explicit the two assumptions the formula hides — that every error costs the same and that every observation weighs the same; establish accuracy as a Bernoulli proportion, derive its binomial standard error and build its confidence interval three ways (Wald, Wilson, Clopper-Pearson) with an exact coverage comparison; compute the sample size needed to distinguish two accuracies and answer "is 94.2 percent better than 93.8 percent"; establish the baselines any accuracy must beat and show that accuracy has no meaningful zero of its own; measure the accuracy paradox under imbalance; define balanced accuracy and its adjusted=True rescaling; prove and verify the micro-average identity in multiclass and define top-k accuracy; define Cohen's kappa and exhibit a low kappa beside a high accuracy; introduce MCC catching a degenerate classifier that accuracy praises; decompose the error rate by cell, class and cost; and state the conditions under which accuracy is the right metric.
Estimated duration
75 minutes
Prerequisites
chapters 011, 026, 027, 029, 030, 034, 050, 051 and 052
Associated quizzes
053.1-quiz-definitions-and-assumptions.md to 053.9-quiz-reporting-accuracy.md

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This lesson is part of the “Classification Metrics” module

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