Mock Exam

True/False
Indicate whether the statement is true or false.

____ 1. The range is considered the weakest measure of variability.

____ 2. A false negative in screening tests is the event that the test is positive for a given condition, given
that the person does not have the condition.

____ 3. The binomial random variable is the number of successes that occur in a certain period of time or
space.

____ 4. Hypergeometric probability distributions is an example of continuous probability distribution.

____ 5. Given a normal random variable x with mean of 70 and standard deviation of 12, the value of the
standard normal random variable z associated with x = 82 is larger than zero.

____ 6. In general, the binomial probability P(X = x) is approximated by the area under a normal curve
between x – .5 and x + .5.

____ 7. Nonrandom samples can be described and also be used for making inferences.

____ 8. A 1-in-k systematic random sample involves the random selection of one of the first k elements in an
ordered population, and then the systematic selection of every kth element thereafter.

____ 9. The first objective in statistical process control is to eliminate assignable causes of variation in the
process variable and then get the process in control. The next step is to reduce variation and get the
measurements on the process variable within specification limits, the limits within which the
measurements on usable items or services must fall.

____ 10. If a process is in control, we expect all the data values to fall within three standard deviations of the
mean.

Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

____ 1. The sum of relative frequencies found in a relative frequency distribution for quantitative data
necessarily equals:

a. 0
b. 1
c. 100
d. n, the number observations in the data set
e. the number of collectively exhaustive and mutually exclusive class in a frequency
distribution
____ 2. Which of the following best describes measures of center?

a. They are numbers around which observations tend to cluster and that describe the
location of what in some sense might be called the center of a data set.
b. They are numbers that indicate the spread or scatter of observations and show the
extent to which individual values in a data set differ from one another and, hence,
differ from their central location.
c. They are numbers that indicate the degree of asymmetry in a frequency
distribution.
d. None of these.
e. All of these.

____ 3. If two data sets have the same range:

a. the distances from the smallest to largest observations in both sets will be the same
b. the smallest and largest observations are the same in both sets
c. both sets will have the same variance
d. both sets will have the same interquartile range
e. both sets will have the same mean
____ 4. Incomes of workers in an automobile company in Michigan are known to be right - skewed with a
mean equal to $36,100. If at least 8/9 of all incomes are in the range of $29,600 to $42,800, and this
was based on Tchebysheff's Theorem, what is the standard deviation for the auto workers?

a. $6,500
b. $6,700
c. Approximately $4,755
d. $2,200
e. $2,600
____ 5. An exam is given to both the fourth period class and the sixth period class. If a student's score is at
the 30th percentile in the fourth period class but at the 60th percentile in the sixth period class, which
one of the following statements is true?

a. Students in the sixth period class generally performed better on the exam than the
students in the fourth period class.
b. A person whose score is at the 15th percentile in the fourth period class will have a
score at the 30th percentile in the sixth period class.
c. A person whose score is at the 70th percentile in the sixth period class will have a
score at the 40th percentile in the fourth period class.
d. Students in the fourth period class generally performed better on the exam than
students in the sixth period class.
e. None of these.

____ 6. Given the least squares regression line y = 3.8 – 2x,

a. the relationship between x and y is positive

 b. the relationship between x and y is negative
c. there is no linear relationship between x and y
d. as x decreases, so does y
e. as x increases, so does y
____ 7. Which of the following statements is true?

a. An experiment is the process by which an observation or measurement is obtained.

b. An event that cannot be decomposed is called a simple event.
c. An event is the collection of one or more simple events.
d. Only an experiment is the process by which an observation or measurement is
obtained and an event is the collection of one or more simple events are true.
e. All of these statements are true.

____ 8. The probability of an event and the probability of its complement always sum to:

a. –1
b. 0
c. 1
d. any value between 0 and 1
e. 0.5
____ 9. Suppose P(A) = 0.4, P(B) = 0.3, and P(A B) = 0. Which one of the following statements correctly
defines the relationship between events A and B?

a. Events A and B are independent, but not mutually exclusive.

b. Events A and B are mutually exclusive, but not independent.
c. Events A and B are neither mutually exclusive nor independent.
d. Events A and B are both mutually exclusive and independent.
e. None of these.
____ 10. If P(A/B) = P(A), or P(B/A) = P(B), then events A and B are said to be:

a. mutually exclusive
b. disjoint
c. independent
d. dependent
e. B contains A.
____ 11. If P(A) = 0.80, P(B) = 0.70 and P(A B) = 0.90, then P(A B) is:

a. 0.60
b. 0.56
c. 0.72
d. 0.63
e. 0.5
____ 12. If P(A) = 0.42 and P(B) = 0.38, then P(A B) is:
 a. 0.80
b. 0.58
c. 0.04
d. 0.42
e. Cannot be determined from the given information.
____ 13. Two events A and B are said to be dependent if and only if:

a. P(A) = P(B)
b. P(A) increases along with P(B)
c. P(A) increases as P(B) decreases
d. event A is affected or changed by the occurrence of event B
e. P(A) < P(B)
____ 14. A false positive in screening (e.g., home pregnancy tests) represents the event that:

a. the test is negative for a given condition, given that the person does not have the
condition
b. the test is positive for a given condition, given that the person does not have the
condition
c. the test is negative for a given condition, given that the person has the condition
d. the test is positive for a given condition, given that the person has the condition

____ 15. Which of following statements is true regarding the probability distribution for a discrete random
variable X?

a. The probabilities must be nonnegative.

b. The probabilities must sum to 1.
c. The random variable must take on positive values between 0 and 1.
d. Both the probabilities must be nonnegative and the probabilities must sum to 1.
e. Both the probabilities must be nonnegative and the random variable must take on
positive values between 0 and 1.
____ 16. Which of the following statements is false?

a. The mean of a discrete probability distribution is equal to the square root of the
variance.
b. The expected value of a discrete probability distribution is the long-run average
value if the experiment is to be repeated many times.
c. The standard deviation of a discrete probability distribution measures the average
variation of the random variable from the mean.
d. All of the above.
e. None of these.
____ 17. Which of the following statements regarding a binomial experiment is false, where n is the number
of trials, and p is the probability of success in each trial?
 a. The n trials are independent.
b. The standard deviation is np(1 – p).
c. The mean is np.
d. There are only two possible outcomes.
e. The n trials are independent and the standard deviation is np(1 – p).
____ 18. Which of the following is an example of a binomial experiment?

a. A shopping mall is interested in the income level of its customers and is taking a
survey to gather information.
b. A business firm introducing a new product wants to know how many purchases its
clients will make each year.
c. A sociologist is researching an area in an effort to determine the proportion of
households with a male head of household.
d. A study is concerned with the average number of hours worked by high school
students.
e. All of these.

____ 19. It has been alleged that 40 percent of all college students favor Dell computers. If this were true, and
we took a random sample of 50 students, the binomial probability table for cumulative values of x
available in your text, would reveal which of the following probabilities?

a. The probability of 10 or fewer students in favor is .586.

b. The probability of fewer than 20 students in favor is 1.000.
c. The probability of more than 15 students in favor is .013.
d. All of these.
e. None of these.
____ 20. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a binomial experiment?

a. The experiment consists of n identical and independent trials.

b. The probability of success on a single trial remains constant from trial to trial.
c. The standard deviation of the binomial random variable is the square root of the
mean.
d. Each trial results in one of two outcomes.
e. All of these.

____ 21. Which of the following cannot generate a Poisson distribution?

a. The number of telephone calls received by a switchboard in a specified time

period.
b. The number of customers arriving at a gas station on Christmas day.
c. The number of bacteria found in a cubic yard of soil.
d. The number of children in a family.
e. The number of accidents per day on a certain section of a highway.
____ 22. Which of the following correctly describes a Poisson random variable?
 a. It does not generate a binomial either/or outcome because only a single type of
outcome or "event" is occurring during the Poisson process.
b. It is not confined to a fixed number of trials, because its value can equal any
discrete integer between zero and infinity, along a continuum of time or space.
c. It equals the number of occurrences of a specified event within a specified time or
space.
d. All of these.
e. None of these.

____ 23. In a book, 2 misprints occur per 100 pages. Using the cumulative Poisson probability table available
in your text, we can determine which of the following probabilities in a book of 500 pages?

a. The probability of finding between 5 and 6 misprints equals .099.

b. The probability of finding at least 20 misprints equals .003.
c. The probability of finding at least 24 misprints equals .1234.
d. The probability of finding at least 20 misprints equals 1.
e. The probability of finding at least 24misprints equals 1.

____ 24. Using the hypergeometric formula, :

a. we calculate the probability of k successes when a random sample of size n is

drawn without replacement from a population of size N within which M units have
the characteristic that denotes success
b. we assume that k = 0, 1, 2, ....n or M (whichever is smaller)
c. we assume that n < N and M < N
d. all of these are true

____ 25. The hypergeometric probability distribution is used rather than the binomial distribution when the
sampling is performed:

a. with replacement from a finite population

b. without replacement from a finite population of size N and that size N is small in
relation to the sample size n namely, n / N .05
c. without replacement from an infinite population
d. with replacement from an infinite population

____ 26. If x is a normal random variable with mean of 1228 and a standard deviation of 120, the number of
standard deviations from 1228 to 1380 is:

a. 10.233
b. 3.1989
c. 11.50
d. 1.267
e. 2.435
____ 27. Continuous random variables that can assume values at all points on an interval of values, with no
breaks between possible values, are quite common. Examples include:

a. profit per dollar of sales

b. cost per credit taken by graduate students
c. the average time it takes to assemble a car, or write a test
d. height
e. all of these
____ 28. Which of the following correctly describes a continuous random variable?

a. We cannot list all the possible values of a continuous random variable.

b. We cannot list all the probabilities for each one of the infinite number of
conceivable values of the variable.
c. We commonly associate probabilities with ranges of values along the continuum of
possible values that the random variable might take on.
d. All of these.
e. None of these.

____ 29. The more peaked a normal curve will appear,

a. the smaller is the value of the standard deviation

b. the larger is the value of the standard deviation
c. the larger is the value of the mean
d. the more closely mean, median, and mode coincide
e. the smaller is the value of the mean
____ 30. The probability density function f(x) of a random variable X that is normally distributed is
completely determined once the:

a. mean and median of X are specified

b. median and mode of X are specified
c. mean and mode of X are specified
d. mean and standard deviation of X are specified
e. mode and standard deviation of X are specified
____ 31. The standard error of a statistic used as an estimator of a population parameter is:

a. the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of the statistic

b. the variance of the sampling distribution of the statistic
c. the same value as the population standard deviation
d. the same value of the population variance
e. the same value of the population mean

____ 32. Given a population variance of = 36 and a sample size of n = 9, these imply a standard deviation
of the sampling distribution of the sample mean, , of:

a. 4
 b. 2
c. 1/4
d. 1/2

____ 33. When a sample is selected at random from a population, the sample mean will likely be:

a. larger than the population mean

b. smaller than the population mean
c. different from the population mean
d. equal to the population mean
e. larger than the population mean and different from the population mean
____ 34. Suppose an actual census showed that 20% of the households in Michigan have incomes in excess of
$60,000. Assume that a random sample of 500 households in Michigan is taken. Then, the standard
error of the sampling distribution of sample proportion of households who have incomes in excess of
$60,000 will be:

a. 0.0179
b. 0.0003
c. 0.1600
d. 0.0256
e. 0.1482
____ 35. Which of the following statement is true?

a. The mean of all possible sample proportions and the expected value of the
sampling distribution of are the same.
b. The standard deviation of the sampling distribution of the proportion is denoted
by SE ( ).
c. The standard deviation of the sampling distribution of the proportion is denoted
by ( ).
d. The mean of all possible sample proportions and the expected value of the
sampling distribution of are the same and The standard deviation of the
sampling distribution of the proportion is denoted by SE ( ).
e. The mean of all possible sample proportions and the expected value of the
sampling distribution of are the same and The standard deviation of the
sampling distribution of the proportion is denoted by ( ).
____ 36. Given a population proportion of p = .8 and a sample size of n = 100, these imply a standard
deviation of the sampling distribution of the sample proportion of:

a. .0258
b. .0355
c. .0400
d. .0538
e. none of these
____ 37. In a recent study, it was reported that the proportion of employees who miss work on Fridays is 0.15,
and that the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of sample proportion is 0.025.
However, the report did not indicate what the sample size n was. What was it?

a. 204
b. 26
c. 108
d. 58
e. More information needed to determine the value of n.
____ 38. A statistics professor has stated that 90% of his students pass the class. To check this claim, a
random sample of 150 students who have taken the class indicated that 129 passed the class. If the
professor's claim is correct, what is the probability that 129 or fewer will pass the class this
semester?

a. .9484
b. .0516
c. .5516
d. .4484
e. .1624
____ 39. Twenty five samples of size 1000 each were drawn from a manufacturing process and the number of
defectives in each sample was counted. The average sample proportion was 0.05. The upper control
limit for the p chart is:

a. 0.0475
b. 0.0206
c. 0.0293
d. 0.0707
e. 0.0635
____ 40. Assignable cause variation is also called:

a. random variation
b. special cause variation
c. common cause variation
d. within-group variation
e. none of these