How to Increase Classification Model Accuracy?


Introduction

Machine learning largely relies on classification models, and the accuracy of these models is a key performance indicator. It can be difficult to increase a classification model's accuracy since it depends on a number of variables, including data quality, model complexity, hyperparameters, and others.

In this post, we'll look at a few methods for improving a classification model's precision.

Ways to Increase Accuracy

  • Data Preprocessing

    • Each machine learning project must include data preprocessing since the model's performance may be greatly impacted by the quality of the training data. There are various processes in preprocessing, like cleaning, normalization, and feature engineering. Here are some recommendations for preparing data to increase a classification model's accuracy:

    • Cleansing Data Remove missing values, outliers, and duplicate data points to clean up the data. Techniques like mean imputation, median imputation, or eliminating rows or columns with missing data can all be used to accomplish this.

    • To make sure that all characteristics are scaled equally, normalize the data. Techniques like min−max normalization, z−score normalization, or log transformation can be used for this.

    • Feature engineering is the process of building new features from already existing ones in order to more accurately reflect the underlying data. Techniques like polynomial features, interaction features, or feature selection can be used for this.

  • Feature Selection

    • The process of choosing the most pertinent characteristics from a dataset that might aid in classification is known as feature selection. The complexity of the model may be reduced and overfitting can be avoided with the use of feature selection. Feature selection methods include the following:

    • Analysis of Correlation: The correlation between each characteristic and the target variable is determined during a correlation analysis. High correlation features may be used for the model.

    • Sorting features according to their significance in the classification process is known as "feature importance ranking." Techniques like decision treebased feature importance or permutation importance can be used for this.

    • Dimensionality Reduction: It is possible to decrease the number of features in a dataset while keeping the majority of the data by using dimensionality reduction techniques like PCA.

  • Model Selection

    • The accuracy of the model can be considerably impacted by the classification algorithm selection. Various data kinds or categorization jobs may lend themselves to different algorithms performing better. These are a few typical categorization methods:

    • Logistic Regression: A linear model that may be applied to binary classification is logistic regression. It operates by calculating the likelihood of a binary result depending on the properties of the input.

    • Decision Trees: Decision trees are non−linear models that may be applied to multi−class classification as well as binary classification. Based on the input characteristics, they divide the input space into more manageable chunks.

    • Support Vector Machines (SVM): SVM is a non−linear model that may be applied to multi−class classification as well as binary classification. The method finds a hyperplane based on the input characteristics that maximum isolates the input data.

    • Random Forest: To increase the model's accuracy, random forest is an ensemble approach that mixes different decision trees. It operates by combining the forecasts from many decision trees.

  • Hyperparameter Tuning

    • Options for model configuration known as hyperparameters cannot be inferred from data. The hyperparameters are tweaked to enhance the model's performance. Listed below are numerous approaches to hyperparameter tuning:

    • Grid Search: In grid search, a grid of hyperparameter values are used to evaluate the model's performance for each conceivable combination.

    • Random Search: In random search, values for the model's hyperparameters are selected at random from a distribution, and the model's performance is evaluated for each set of hyperparameters.

    • Bayesian optimization involves using a probabilistic model to predict how the model will perform given different values for its hyperparameters in order to select the hyperparameters that will maximize the performance of the model.

  • Cross−Validation

    • Cross−validation is a method for assessing the effectiveness of the model and preventing overfitting. When a model performs well on training data but badly on test data, this is known as overfitting. In cross−validation, the model is tested on various subsets of the data after being divided into training and validation sets. Here are a few typical cross−validation methods:

    • K−Fold K−fold cross−validation In cross−validation, the data are split into k equal−sized subsets, the model is trained on k−1 subsets, and then the model is tested on the remaining subset. Each subset is utilized as the validation set once throughout this procedure, which is repeated k times.

    • Stratified cross−validation entails making sure that each fold has a target variable distribution that is comparable to the distribution throughout the whole dataset. When the target variable is unbalanced, this might be helpful.

    • Leave−One−Out Cross−Validation: In leave−one−out cross−validation, the model is trained on all data points except for one and tested on the remaining data points. Each data point undergoes this procedure once, resulting in n distinct models, where n is the total number of data points.

  • Ensemble Methods

    • Techniques such as ensemble approaches combine many models to increase classification accuracy. When more than one model fails to adequately represent the dataset, ensemble approaches might be helpful. Here are a few popular ensemble techniques:

    • Bagging: In bagging, various models are trained on various subsets of the data, and the predictions are then combined to get the final forecast. This may aid in lowering the model's variance and enhancing its accuracy.

    • Boosting is the process of successively training many models, each one concentrating on the data points that the earlier models incorrectly categorised. This may aid in lowering the model's bias and raising its accuracy.

    • Stacking is the process of training numerous models and feeding the predictions of those models into a meta−model. The final prediction is then made by the meta−model. Combining the benefits of many models through stacking can increase accuracy overall.

  • Imbalanced Data

    • In classification tasks, unbalanced data frequently arises when one class has a disproportionately large number of data points compared to the other class. Biased models might result from unbalanced data and underperform for minority classes. The following are some methods for dealing with unbalanced data:

    • Oversampling: To equalize the quantity of data points in each class, oversampling entails reproducing the minority class data points.

    • Undersampling: To balance the quantity of data points in each class, undersampling entails arbitrarily eliminating data points from the majority class.

    • Learning that is cost−sensitive entails allocating various misclassification costs to various classes. This can aid in lessening the model's bias towards the class that is in the majority.

Conclusion

In conclusion, enhancing a classification model's accuracy necessitates a methodical approach that includes data pretreatment, feature selection, model selection, hyperparameter tweaking, cross−validation, ensemble approaches, and managing unbalanced data. You may considerably increase the robustness and efficiency of your classification model as well as its accuracy by putting these strategies into practice. Whilst obtaining 100% accuracy may not always be attainable or practicable, it's still vital to take other metrics like precision, recall, and F1−score into account.

Updated on: 24-Jul-2023

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