Test Information
Test 1
Test 1 will be on Thursday, January 20 at 2:00 pm.
Content
Keep in mind the four goals for the course (see the
course home page). They provide a general framework that will guide
me in making the exam.
For those of you who like a bit more detail,
here is a list of things you should be sure you know how to do. It is
not intended to be an exhaustive list, but it is an important list.
You should be able to:
-
Know how to understand, use and explain the words on the vocabulary list.
-
Compute nummerical summary statistics
(mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation, quartiles, 5-number summary,
etc) and know what they tell you about a data set.
-
Understand how to make and interpret graphical representions of data
(stemplot, histogram, boxplot, pie chart, bar graph, line graph, etc).
-
Read an article (or portion of an article) and evaluate it using
the seven critical compents,
checklist for pictures, etc.
(See web overheads and grey boxes in book for
handy lists of things to watch for.)
-
Understand the issues involved in collecting good data and
the design of studies, including the distinctions between
sample surveys, observational studies, and randomized experiments.
-
Work with normal distributions. This includes being able to use the
68-95-99.7 Rule and/or the chart on page 137 to find percentages, z-scores,
etc.
-
Make use of the basic rules
of probability to determine probabilities of events.
-
Compute expected value and know what it tells you about a situation.
-
Determine a confidence interval for a proportion and understand what it means.
-
Compute Chi-squared and interpret what it means (using either output
from a statistical package or the chart handed out in class).
-
Understand the basic framework for hypothesis testing and how to interpret
p-values. Be able to carry out a hypothesis test using Chi-squred or
sample proportions.
Note that the test will be a sample from the possible topics, it will
not be exhaustive.
Format
The format of the test will be similar to that of the quizzes, but there are
a couple types of items that might be on the test that have not been on
a quiz:
-
Reading an article or part of an article and answering questions about it,
or simply giving an evaluation of the article.
-
Responding to an issue-oriented question.
-
Taking a position based on a statistical report
Back to Math W50 Home Page
This page maintained by:
Randall Pruim
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Calvin College
rpruim@calvin.edu
Last Modified:
Thursday, 11-Jan-2001 16:02:16 EST