Final Exam
General Info
The final exam is at 6:30pm on Saturday, May 13. Please bring your
calculator and something to write with. If possible, do not bring much
else with you, it makes the room less crowded. You will be provided
with the same handouts as on test 2, including the chart we used for
t and z inference procedures.
Scope
The exam will cover chapters 1-9, 10 and 12.
Questions on the final will be similar to but not identical to questions
from homework, quizzes and tests.
They will be designed to try to see how well you understand the material,
not how well you can perform various procedures mindlessly.
Your reasoning and explanations will be at least as important as
your answers.
Format
The test format should look very familiar when you see it, but
the distribution of the problem formats will be somewhat different
from that of the tests.
There will be fewer problems that
require significant computation and more problems that require only
interpretting output (perhaps with minor computations), and more
problems that are of a multiple choice, true/false or short answer
format.
Some things you can expect:
-
The first two pages are all short answer, true/false and multiple choice.
Some additional problems of these types may occur later in the test as well.
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There will be a problem similar to problem 2 on test 2.
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You will need to perform at least one of the tests from "the handout".
The data will be given in summarized form.
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There will be several problems requiring you to interpret minitab output.
Instructions
Read through the instruction provided before test 1 prior to coming to
the test and follow them when you take your test.
Some advice
-
Be sure you look over your old quizzes and tests. They reflect
both my style and the emphasis of the course.
-
I am preparing a hand-out for the last night of class that will give an
example of Minitab output (and discussion of it) for a number of the
tests we have done this semester. We will discuss these as part of our
review that night.
It would be good to look over that handout just to be sure you remember
what the output looks like, what minitab calls stuff, etc.
-
Use good test-taking strategy:
Look the test over a bit before beginning. Don't spend too much time
on a problem that is giving you difficulty until you have finished the
parts you know how to do. You do not have to do the test in order.
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Show your work clearly. Most of you will not see these exams after they
have been graded, so make sure you show your work clearly.
-
Point values will be given for each problem so you know the relative
values as you are taking the test.
Budget your time wisely.
Content
Keep in mind the 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,
especially the terms that we have used repeatedly throughout the semester.
(The vocab list is available on the calendar.)
-
Compute/make nummerical and graphical summaries of data
(mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation, quartiles, 5-number summary,
etc.,
stemplot, histogram, boxplot, pie chart, bar graph, line graph, scatterplot,
normal quantile plot (interpret only), etc). You should also know
what they tell you (and don't tell you) about a data set.
-
Read an article (or portion of an article) and evaluate it using
the
seven critical compents,
checklist for pictures, etc.
-
Understand the issues involved in collecting good data and
the design of studies, including the distinctions between
observational studies and randomized experiments.
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Understand the basic framework for hypothesis testing and confidence
intervals, including the meaning of P-values.
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Understand, perform, and interpret statistical procedures covered
in this course (z, t, Chi-square, ANOVA, regression), but note that
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2-way ANOVA will not be covered.
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You should know how an ANOVA table works and how to interpret
ANOVA output (from Minitab, for example).
-
You will not need to know the formulas for the various tests and
confidence intervals associated with regression, but you should
know how to read computer output, understand the various tests that
are available, etc.
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Be aware of the assumptions that must be true to make use of various
statistical procedures and the situations in which they are used.
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Make use of
the basic rules of probability
to determine probabilities of events and work with random variables.
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Compute the mean and standard deviation
of a random variable and know what they tell you.
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Be able to work with distributions of random variables, especailly normal and
binomial, but also ones given by a chart. This includes being able
to use rules for means and variances to determine the mean and variance
of a more complicated random variable from means and variances of
simpler random variables.
Note that the test will be a sample from the possible topics, so some topics
from the above list will not appear on the test.
Final Exam Information Last Modified:
Thursday, 11-Jan-2001 16:02:44 EST