Random Variables

1. What is a random variable?

 A) A variable that can only take fixed values.
 B) A function that associates a real number with each element in a sample space.
 C) A number that describes the spread of data.
 D) A function that always gives the same output for a given input.
Answer: B
2. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a random variable?
 A) Probability Mass Function (P.M.F.)
 B) Cumulative Distribution Function (C.D.F.)
 C) Standard Deviation
 D) Regression Line
Answer: D
Discrete Random Variables
3. A discrete random variable is defined as:
 A) A variable with a finite number of outcomes.
 B) A variable with an infinite number of uncountable outcomes.
 C) A variable that can take any value within a range.
 D) A variable whose range is a countable set (finite or infinite).
Answer: D
Probability Mass Function (P.M.F.)
4. Which of the following must be true for a function to be a Probability Mass Function (P.M.F.)?
 A) The function can take any real number value.
 B) The sum of all probabilities must equal 1.
 C) The function must be non-decreasing.
 D) The function must be continuous.
Answer: B
Cumulative Distribution Function (C.D.F.)
5. Which of the following properties does a Cumulative Distribution Function (C.D.F.) NOT satisfy?
 A) It is a non-decreasing function.
 B) F(-∞) = 0.
 C) F(∞) = 1.
 D) F is always greater than 1.
Answer: D
Expectation
6. What does the expectation E(X) of a random variable X represent?
 A) The median of the variable.
 B) The most frequently occurring value of the variable.
 C) The average value of the variable over the long term.
 D) The range of the variable.
Answer: C
Variance
7. Variance of a random variable X is defined as:
 A) The square root of the mean.
 B) The difference between the highest and lowest values.
 C) The measure of dispersion around the mean.
 D) The expected value of the squared deviation from the mean.
Answer: D
Sampling Distribution
8. What is a sample in the context of statistics?
 A) A set of all elements under investigation.
 B) A subset of the population.
 C) The mean of the population.
 D) The variance of the population.
Answer: B
9. According to the Central Limit Theorem, the distribution of the sample mean for a sufficiently large sample
size (n ≥ 30) is:
 A) Uniform.
 B) Exponential.
 C) Normal.
 D) Poisson.
Answer: C
10. The sample mean 𝑋‾X from a normal population with mean μ and variance 𝜎2σ2 follows which distribution?
 A) Exponential (λ)
2
σ
 B) Normal (μ, )
n
 C) Binomial (n, p)
 D) Poisson (λ)
Answer: B
11. Which of the following is true for a probability mass function 𝑓(𝑥)?
 A) 𝑓(𝑥) can take negative values.
 B) 𝑓(𝑥) must satisfy ∑𝑓(𝑥)=1.
 C) 𝑓(𝑥) is always a continuous function.
 D) 𝑓(𝑥) is not defined for discrete random variables.
Answer: B
12. For a valid P.M.F., what is the minimum value that 𝑓(𝑥)f(x) can take?
 A) -1
 B) 0
 C) 0.5
 D) 1
Answer: B
Cumulative Distribution Function (C.D.F.)
13. The value of a cumulative distribution function (C.D.F.) 𝐹(𝑥)F(x) at 𝑥=−∞ is:
 A) 0
 B) 0.5
 C) 1
 D) Undefined
Answer: A
14. What does the cumulative distribution function 𝐹(𝑥)F(x) represent?
 A) The probability that a random variable takes a value exactly equal to 𝑥x.
 B) The probability that a random variable takes a value less than or equal to 𝑥x.
 C) The probability that a random variable takes a value greater than 𝑥x.
 D) The range of possible values of a random variable.
Answer: B
Expectation and Properties
15. The expectation 𝐸(𝑋)E(X) of a random variable X is also known as the:
 A) Variance
 B) Standard deviation
 C) Mean
 D) Mode
Answer: C
 16. Which of the following is a linear property of expectation?

Answer: A
Variance and Properties
17. What does the variance 𝑉(𝑋) of a random variable 𝑋 measure?

 A) The central tendency of the data.

 B) The spread or dispersion of the data.
 C) The maximum value in the data.
 D) The sum of all data points.
Answer: B
18. The variance 𝑉(𝑋) is given by:

 Answer: A

19. If 𝑋X and 𝑌Y are independent random variables, then the variance of their sum 𝑉(𝑋+𝑌) is:
Answer: A
Discrete Random Variables
20. Which of the following is an example of a discrete random variable?
 A) The temperature at noon.
 B) The number of students in a classroom.
 C) The height of students in a classroom.
 D) The amount of rainfall in a year.
Answer: B
21. For a discrete random variable 𝑋X, the probability that 𝑋X takes a specific value 𝑥x is given by:
 A) The cumulative distribution function (C.D.F.)
 B) The probability mass function (P.M.F.)
 C) The probability density function (P.D.F.)
 D) The variance
Answer: B
Sampling Distribution
22. The law of large numbers states that as the sample size increases:
 A) The sample mean will diverge from the population mean.
 B) The sample mean will converge to the population mean.
 C) The variance of the sample mean will increase.
 D) The distribution of the sample mean becomes uniform.
Answer: B
23. Which of the following is a characteristic of a random sample?
 A) The observations are dependent.
 B) The observations are identically distributed.
 C) The sample size is always larger than the population.
 D) The sample mean is equal to the population mean.
Answer: B
24. The Central Limit Theorem applies to:
  A) The distribution of a single random variable.
 B) The distribution of the sum or average of a large number of independent, identically distributed random
variables.
 C) The distribution of the variance.
 D) The distribution of the range.
Answer: B
Standard Deviation
25. Standard deviation is defined as:
 A) The square root of the mean.
 B) The square root of the variance.
 C) The mean of the data.
 D) The median of the data.
Answer: B

Expected Value
29. The expected value 𝐸(𝑋) of a random variable X can be interpreted as:
 A) The most frequent value of X.
 B) The long-run average value of X.
 C) The maximum value of X.
 D) The minimum value of X.
Answer: B
30. If X and Y are independent random variables, the expected value of their product is:
 A) 𝐸(𝑋+𝑌)
 B) 𝐸(𝑋)⋅𝐸(𝑌)
 C) 𝐸(𝑋)+𝐸(𝑌)
 D) 𝐸(𝑋⋅𝑌)
Answer: B
Continuous Random Variables
31. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a continuous random variable?
 A) It can take an infinite number of values.
 B) It is defined on a continuous scale.
 C) Its probability distribution is described by a P.M.F.
 D) Its probability distribution is described by a P.D.F.
Answer: C
32. The area under the probability density function (P.D.F.) of a continuous random variable over its entire range
is:
 A) 0
 B) 1
 C) Equal to the mean
 D) Equal to the variance
Answer: B
Laws and Theorems
33. According to the Central Limit Theorem, as the sample size 𝑛n increases, the sampling distribution of the
sample mean approaches a:
 A) Uniform distribution
 B) Normal distribution
 C) Binomial distribution
 D) Poisson distribution
Answer: B
34. In a sampling distribution, the standard error of the mean is:
 A) The standard deviation of the population.
 B) The standard deviation of the sample means.
 C) The mean of the sample.
 D) The variance of the population.
Answer: B
Descriptive Statistics
35. The measure of central tendency that is most affected by extreme values is:
 A) Mean
 B) Median
 C) Mode
 D) Range
Answer: A
36. Which measure of dispersion is defined as the average of the squared differences from the mean?
 A) Range
 B) Standard deviation
 C) Variance
 D) Interquartile range
Answer: C