SPREADSHEET MODELING AND DECISION
ANALYSIS A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION TO
BUSINESS ANALYSIS 2026 PRACTICE SET
MOCK EXAM REVISION NOTES AND
SOLUTIONS EXPERT GRADE A+
◉ Categorical (nominal) data. Answer: Data that are sorted into
categories according to specified characteristics.
◉ Constraints. Answer: Limitations, requirements, or other
restrictions that are imposed on any solution, either practical or
technological considerations or by management policy.
◉ Continuous metric. Answer: A metric that is based on a
continuous scale of measurement.
◉ Data mining. Answer: A rapidly growing field of business analytics
that is focused on better understanding characteristics and patterns
among variables in large databases using a variety of statistical and
analytical tools.
◉ Data set. Answer: A collection of data.
, ◉ Database. Answer: A collection of related files containing records
on people, places, or things.
◉ Decision model. Answer: A logical or mathematical representation
of a problem or business situation that can be used to understand,
analyze, or facilitate making a decision.
◉ Decision support systems (DSS). Answer: A combination of
business intelligence concepts and OR/MS models to create
analytical-based computer systems to support decision making.
◉ Descriptive analytics. Answer: The use of data to understand past
and current business performance and make informed decisions;
the most commonly used and most well-understood type of
analytics.
◉ Deterministic model. Answer: A prescriptive decision model in
which all model input information is either known or assumed to be
known with certainty.
◉ Discrete metric. Answer: A metric derived from counting
something.
◉ Influence diagram. Answer: A visual representation that describes
how various elements of a model influence, or relate to, others.
ANALYSIS A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION TO
BUSINESS ANALYSIS 2026 PRACTICE SET
MOCK EXAM REVISION NOTES AND
SOLUTIONS EXPERT GRADE A+
◉ Categorical (nominal) data. Answer: Data that are sorted into
categories according to specified characteristics.
◉ Constraints. Answer: Limitations, requirements, or other
restrictions that are imposed on any solution, either practical or
technological considerations or by management policy.
◉ Continuous metric. Answer: A metric that is based on a
continuous scale of measurement.
◉ Data mining. Answer: A rapidly growing field of business analytics
that is focused on better understanding characteristics and patterns
among variables in large databases using a variety of statistical and
analytical tools.
◉ Data set. Answer: A collection of data.
, ◉ Database. Answer: A collection of related files containing records
on people, places, or things.
◉ Decision model. Answer: A logical or mathematical representation
of a problem or business situation that can be used to understand,
analyze, or facilitate making a decision.
◉ Decision support systems (DSS). Answer: A combination of
business intelligence concepts and OR/MS models to create
analytical-based computer systems to support decision making.
◉ Descriptive analytics. Answer: The use of data to understand past
and current business performance and make informed decisions;
the most commonly used and most well-understood type of
analytics.
◉ Deterministic model. Answer: A prescriptive decision model in
which all model input information is either known or assumed to be
known with certainty.
◉ Discrete metric. Answer: A metric derived from counting
something.
◉ Influence diagram. Answer: A visual representation that describes
how various elements of a model influence, or relate to, others.
