Test 1 Review (Classroom course)

Test Reviews:

These Test Reviews are not intended to replace doing the lessons and working through the explanations, problems, and applets in the text. These are not lists of objectives for the chapters nor are they complete lists of the topics. The textbook and homework provide those. These Test Reviews focus on topics and problems that students in previous semesters have been somewhat more likely to make mistakes on than the rest of the material.

It is pointless to even read these questions until you have read the chapters and done the homework. After that, you might want to write out answers to the questions (maybe conferring with other students in your class) and then bring the questions and your answers to the instructor or a tutor so that they can help you with any misunderstandings you have.

Test 1:

Read the chapter summaries and use them and your homework as guidelines for what to put on your page of notes. Then look over the following comments about things that students sometimes miss on tests to make sure you understand these.

Most important note: Most students who make a low grade on Test 1 say, "I had trouble with the normal dist'n calculations in Ch. 3, so I just hoped there wouldn't be much of that on the test." And they were wrong. At least 1/3 of the test is from that material. Don't take Test 1 until you are good at normal distribution calculuations.

  1. Determine whether variables are categorical or quantitative and choose an appropriate type of graphical summary for each.
  2. Determine whether a problem asks for a summary of individual variables or a summary of the relationship between two variables and choose an appropriate type of graphical and/or numerical summary for each.
  3. When you sketch a stemplot, be sure to list all the possible stems that are relevant, even though there may not be an actual scores in that category. (So any "gaps" in the data are obvious.)
  4. Be able to split stems correctly.
  5. Explain the difference in computing the median of a set of scores with an odd number of scores and a set of scores with an even number of scores.
  6. When you compute the first and third quartiles, you have to compute a median three different times. Explain what is different about doing this for a set of scores with an odd number of scores and a set of scores with an even number of scores.
  7. When you make a boxplot, make sure the scale is reasonable.
  8. For what sorts of distributions are the median and the mean different? How? What does this imply about which is the most appropriate measure of the center of the dist'n in what circumstances?
  9. How do you determine whether an observation is a suspected outlier?
  10. Calculate the standard deviation of a set of scores using MINITAB. (Not included on tests in Testing Center.)
  11. Interpret the standard deviation and use that interpretation to decide whether a value for it is reasonable or unreasonable. (Use this to check whether your calculation gave a reasonable answer.)
  12. Know the four steps of the "four-step process" and be able to do each of them.
  13. Be able to round numbers correctly and to know how much it is reasonable to round the result of a particular type of computation.
  14. Sketch a uniform density curve and use geometry to find the area of any part. (Including noticing when to use a uniform curve and when to use a normal curve, according to the statement of the problem.)
  15. When you're computing a z-score, know what goes in each place. If you reverse the X and mu, you'll get an incorrect answer.
  16. Sketch normal dist'n density curves and use the table to find areas of any part. Be able to sketch a graph for any computation of this sort that you do.
  17. Find areas when the z-score is -5.41 or +4.82.
  18. Use the normal dist'n table to find the score that is at a given percentile. For instance, what score has 23% of the scores below it in a normal distribution with mean 7 and standard deviation 3?
  19. For a set of data, use the 68-95-99.7 rule to determine whether the data can be considered to come from a normal distribution.
  20. Be able to use these words correctly: individual (case,) variable, observation. (These are "jargon words" in statistics. Use them with those meanings rather than their usual meanings in informal conversation.)
  21. Make and interpret a scatterplot. Know which variable (response or explanatory) goes on which axis.
  22. Interpret the correlation coefficient.
  23. Given a scatterplot, be able to make a reasonable guess at the correlation coefficient. (It doesn't have to be terribly accurate -- but with the correct sign and correct as to whether it is close to 1 or to 0.)

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This was last updated on September 10, 2007 . Mary Parker, mparker@austincc.edu