DSCI 100 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE
Descriptive question - Answers - Asks about summarized characteristics of a data set
without interpretation (report a fact)
Exploratory question - Answers - Asks if there are patterns, trends, or relationships
within a single data set, often used to propose hypotheses for future study.
Predictive questions - Answers - Asks about predicting measurements or labels for
individuals, people or things, focus is on what things predict some outcome, but not
what causes the outcome
Inferential questions - Answers - Looks for patterns, trends, or relationships in a single
data set and also asks for quantification of how applicable these findings are to the
wider population
Causal questions - Answers - Asks about whether changing one factor will lead to
change in another factor, on average, in the wider population
Mechanistic questions - Answers - Asks about the underlying mechanism of the
observe, patterns, trends, or relationships (ex how does it happen?)
Summarization - Answers - Most often used to answer descriptive questions, but
sometimes can help with answering exploratory questions. Involves computing and
reporting aggregated values pertaining to a data set.
Visualization - Answers - Used to answer, descriptive and exploratory questions, but
also plays a critical role in answering all types of questions. Involves plotting data
graphically.
Classification - Answers - Used to answer, predictive questions. Involves predicting a
class or category for a new observation that has yet to be classified.
Observations - Answers - The rows of a data frame. These are the things we collect the
data on.
Variables - Answers - Columns of a data frame. Are the characteristics of the
observations
The difference between absolute paths and relative paths - Answers - Absolute paths
begin with a / whereas relative paths do not start with a /
Descriptive question - Answers - Asks about summarized characteristics of a data set
without interpretation (report a fact)
Exploratory question - Answers - Asks if there are patterns, trends, or relationships
within a single data set, often used to propose hypotheses for future study.
Predictive questions - Answers - Asks about predicting measurements or labels for
individuals, people or things, focus is on what things predict some outcome, but not
what causes the outcome
Inferential questions - Answers - Looks for patterns, trends, or relationships in a single
data set and also asks for quantification of how applicable these findings are to the
wider population
Causal questions - Answers - Asks about whether changing one factor will lead to
change in another factor, on average, in the wider population
Mechanistic questions - Answers - Asks about the underlying mechanism of the
observe, patterns, trends, or relationships (ex how does it happen?)
Summarization - Answers - Most often used to answer descriptive questions, but
sometimes can help with answering exploratory questions. Involves computing and
reporting aggregated values pertaining to a data set.
Visualization - Answers - Used to answer, descriptive and exploratory questions, but
also plays a critical role in answering all types of questions. Involves plotting data
graphically.
Classification - Answers - Used to answer, predictive questions. Involves predicting a
class or category for a new observation that has yet to be classified.
Observations - Answers - The rows of a data frame. These are the things we collect the
data on.
Variables - Answers - Columns of a data frame. Are the characteristics of the
observations
The difference between absolute paths and relative paths - Answers - Absolute paths
begin with a / whereas relative paths do not start with a /
