HBX Business Analytics Exam | Verified Exam Questions and Answers |
Latest Updated Study Material 2026
Question:
Skewness
Answer:
Skewness measures the degree of a graph's
asymmetry. If the right tail is longer, we say the distribution is skewed to the right or "right-
tailed." Likewise, if the left tail is longer, we say the distribution is skewed to the left or "left-
tailed."
Question:
Rules of thumb for the normal distribution
Answer:
About 68% of the
probability is contained in the range reaching one standard deviation away from the mean on
either side:
Question:
P(?-??x??+?)?68%
About 95% of the probability is contained in the range reaching two standard deviations (1.96 to
be exact) away from the mean on either side:
P(?-2??x??+2?)?95%
We'll use two standard deviations when discussing the normal distribution conceptually, but we
will always use 1.96 for actual calculations in Excel.
About 99.7% of the probability is contained in the range reaching three standard deviations away
from the mean on either side:
P(?-3??x??+3?)?99.7%
Bias
Answer:
avoid biased results by
Question:
- phrasing questions neutrally
-ensuring that the sampling method is appropriate for the demographic of the target population
,-pursuing a high response rate
Normal Distribution
Answer:
a unique symmetrical shape whose centre
and width are determined by its mean and standard deviation respectively.
Question:
z-value
Answer:
the distance that x lies from the mean, measured in
standard deviations.
Question:
Central Limit Theorem
Answer:
If we take enough sufficiently large
samples from any population, the means of those samples will be normally distributed regardless
of the shape of the underlying population.
Question:
Confidence interval
Answer:
An estimate of the range in which the true
population mean likely lies.
Question:
Outlier
Answer:
Technically, a data point is considered an outlier if it is
more than a specified distance below the lower quartile or above the upper quartile of a data set.
Let's start with a couple of definitions. The lower quartile, Q1, is the 25th percentile-by
definition, 25% of all observations fall below Q1. The upper quartile, Q3, is the 75th
percentile-75% of all observations fall below Q3. The interquartile range (IQR) is the
difference between the upper and lower quartiles, that is, IQR=Q3-Q1.
, Question:
Histogram
Answer:
Histogram, also called a bar chart.
Question:
A histogram's x-axis represents bins corresponding to ranges of data; its y-axis indicates the
frequency of observations falling into each bin.
Descriptive Statistic
Answer:
Provide a quick overview of a data set
without showing every data point.
Question:
Central Tendency
Answer:
"central tendency" of a data set-an
indication of where the "center" of the data set lies.
Question:
Mean
Answer:
Mean (average): The mean is equal to the sum of all of
the data points in a set, divided by n, the number of data points.
Question:
Median
Answer:
Median: The middle value of a data set. The same
number of data points fall above and below the median.
Question:
Mode
Answer:
Mode: The value that occurs most frequently in a data
Latest Updated Study Material 2026
Question:
Skewness
Answer:
Skewness measures the degree of a graph's
asymmetry. If the right tail is longer, we say the distribution is skewed to the right or "right-
tailed." Likewise, if the left tail is longer, we say the distribution is skewed to the left or "left-
tailed."
Question:
Rules of thumb for the normal distribution
Answer:
About 68% of the
probability is contained in the range reaching one standard deviation away from the mean on
either side:
Question:
P(?-??x??+?)?68%
About 95% of the probability is contained in the range reaching two standard deviations (1.96 to
be exact) away from the mean on either side:
P(?-2??x??+2?)?95%
We'll use two standard deviations when discussing the normal distribution conceptually, but we
will always use 1.96 for actual calculations in Excel.
About 99.7% of the probability is contained in the range reaching three standard deviations away
from the mean on either side:
P(?-3??x??+3?)?99.7%
Bias
Answer:
avoid biased results by
Question:
- phrasing questions neutrally
-ensuring that the sampling method is appropriate for the demographic of the target population
,-pursuing a high response rate
Normal Distribution
Answer:
a unique symmetrical shape whose centre
and width are determined by its mean and standard deviation respectively.
Question:
z-value
Answer:
the distance that x lies from the mean, measured in
standard deviations.
Question:
Central Limit Theorem
Answer:
If we take enough sufficiently large
samples from any population, the means of those samples will be normally distributed regardless
of the shape of the underlying population.
Question:
Confidence interval
Answer:
An estimate of the range in which the true
population mean likely lies.
Question:
Outlier
Answer:
Technically, a data point is considered an outlier if it is
more than a specified distance below the lower quartile or above the upper quartile of a data set.
Let's start with a couple of definitions. The lower quartile, Q1, is the 25th percentile-by
definition, 25% of all observations fall below Q1. The upper quartile, Q3, is the 75th
percentile-75% of all observations fall below Q3. The interquartile range (IQR) is the
difference between the upper and lower quartiles, that is, IQR=Q3-Q1.
, Question:
Histogram
Answer:
Histogram, also called a bar chart.
Question:
A histogram's x-axis represents bins corresponding to ranges of data; its y-axis indicates the
frequency of observations falling into each bin.
Descriptive Statistic
Answer:
Provide a quick overview of a data set
without showing every data point.
Question:
Central Tendency
Answer:
"central tendency" of a data set-an
indication of where the "center" of the data set lies.
Question:
Mean
Answer:
Mean (average): The mean is equal to the sum of all of
the data points in a set, divided by n, the number of data points.
Question:
Median
Answer:
Median: The middle value of a data set. The same
number of data points fall above and below the median.
Question:
Mode
Answer:
Mode: The value that occurs most frequently in a data