At a minimum, a data scientist should...

I wish I could remember where I copied and pasted this from, but alas, I cannot. Just the same, here's a great overview of what a data scientist would benefit from understanding.

At a minimum, a data scientist needs to be proficient with concepts such as probability, correlation, variables, distributions, regression, null hypothesis significance tests, confidence intervals, t-test, ANOVA, and chi-square. At an advanced stage, data scientists need concepts and algorithms such as logistic regression, support vector machines (SVMs) and Bayesian methods. Common statistical analysis tools such as Excel, R and SAS are very famous among data scientists.