SMPA 6242 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE.
EXAM 2025 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Statistical question - ANS a question that requires data to answer and anticipates variability
in the data that is collected to answer the question
steps to answering a statistical question - ANS step 1: pose a question that can be answered
by data
step 2: determine a plan to collect (or find) the data necessary answer the question
step 3: summarize the data with graphs and numerical summaries
step 4: answer the question posed in step 1 using data and summary stats
step 5: quantCrit
numerical data
2 kinds - ANS measured in units, represented with numbers
discrete & continuous
categorical data
2 kinds - ANS data measured using categories
ordinal & nominal
1 Copyright ©2025 THESTAR ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
, discrete data - ANS a few answers
ex: how many childremnhow many books
continuous data - ANS many infinite answers
ex: miles from the White House, height in inches
ordinal data - ANS the categories are numbered in a way that follows a pattern
nominal data - ANS the numbered-ness or irrelevant in their order
binary variables - ANS categorical variables with only two possible categories
ex: male and female
experimental sources - ANS from experiments trying to evaluate the cause of some effect
ex: randomizing student class sizes
observational sources - ANS obtained by observing behavior or phenomena outside an
experiment
ex: daily weather temperatures
types of data sets - ANS cross sectional: data on multiple entities in one period in time
2 Copyright ©2025 THESTAR ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
EXAM 2025 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Statistical question - ANS a question that requires data to answer and anticipates variability
in the data that is collected to answer the question
steps to answering a statistical question - ANS step 1: pose a question that can be answered
by data
step 2: determine a plan to collect (or find) the data necessary answer the question
step 3: summarize the data with graphs and numerical summaries
step 4: answer the question posed in step 1 using data and summary stats
step 5: quantCrit
numerical data
2 kinds - ANS measured in units, represented with numbers
discrete & continuous
categorical data
2 kinds - ANS data measured using categories
ordinal & nominal
1 Copyright ©2025 THESTAR ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
, discrete data - ANS a few answers
ex: how many childremnhow many books
continuous data - ANS many infinite answers
ex: miles from the White House, height in inches
ordinal data - ANS the categories are numbered in a way that follows a pattern
nominal data - ANS the numbered-ness or irrelevant in their order
binary variables - ANS categorical variables with only two possible categories
ex: male and female
experimental sources - ANS from experiments trying to evaluate the cause of some effect
ex: randomizing student class sizes
observational sources - ANS obtained by observing behavior or phenomena outside an
experiment
ex: daily weather temperatures
types of data sets - ANS cross sectional: data on multiple entities in one period in time
2 Copyright ©2025 THESTAR ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
