Stat 2000, Section 001, Final Exam Preparations

• 1) Final Exam: Content
  
  The final exam is comprehensive and will cover material from Chapters 1 to 7, 9, and 12 of the Moore/McCabe/Craig textbook.
  
  The following topics will not be tested in the final exam:
  
  • Entire Section 6.4: "Power and inference as a decision" (pages 389-397)
  • Parts of Section 7.1: "The power of the t test" and "Inference for non-Normal populations" (pages 419-425)
  • Parts of Section 7.2: "Software approximation for the degrees of freedom" and "The pooled two-sample t procedures" (pages 445-451)
  • Entire Section 7.3: "Optional topics in comparing distributions" (pages 459-465)
  • Entire Section 9.3: "Goodness of fit" (pages 530-534)
  • Entire Chapters 8, 10, and 11. Some old final exams contained multiple choice (MC) questions related to Chapter 10. You can just ignore such questions. But, make sure that you only ignore questions from these chapters, and not from a chapter that was discussed in class!
  • Questions related to the sum notation, featured in some of the earlier midterms and final exams.
    
    
  The following topics from Chapter 12 may be tested in the final exam in multiple choice (MC) questions only:
  
  • Parts of Chapter 12, as discussed in class. (that is, pages 1-13, 15-16, 21 (!), 24-27, 34-36, and 39 in the Powerpoint slides for this chapter).
    
    
  The final exam will consist of:
  
  • 30 multiple choice (MC) questions: at least 10 questions from past exams (final exams from past semesters and this semester's midterms), and at most 20 new questions. Numerical values and answer orders may be changed, so you need to know and understand the principle how each question can be answered.
  • About half of the questions will cover material from the two midterms, i.e., Chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4.
  • The other half of the questions will cover material discussed after Midterm 2, such as sampling distributions, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing, based on Chapters 5, 6, 7, 9, and 12.
  • There will be at least one question based on this semester's midterms, quizzes, or homework assignments (same principle, but new numbers).
  • Chapter 12 will be examined via MC questions only.
    
    
  Note: You will be given about 110 minutes to complete the final exam. The exam will be a closed-book exam, which means that you are not allowed to use the textbook or the lecture notes. You can only have one formula sheet (see below for details). All required tables (such as for the Normal, t, and Chi-Square distribution) will be provided. You should bring your calculator!
  
  The final will be comparable in length with previous finals. You have to work efficiently. Read carefully whether you have to "Show your work" or "Circle your answer" (and whether some further explanation is needed or not). Check solutions for old exams (midterms and finals) to determine how much of a calculation you have to write down to obtain full points in "Show your work" questions.
  
  
• 2) Final Exam: General Study Suggestions
  
  
  • Work through the posted old finals from Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, and Fall 2016 (in 2 hours each!).
  • Determine which question types have been most frequently asked in these past final exams. This will provide you with a probability whether such a question type is more likely or less likely to occur in the final exam this semester. Be aware that there always have been some questions or question parts that have not been asked in a previous exam! Those are questions I would expect to be answered by A-grade students.
  • Work through all old midterms (from our semester and past semesters) as about 50% of the final will be new material after Midterm 2, but about 50% will be material up to Midterm 2.
  • Don't forget to look at the HWs, HW solutions, quizzes, and quiz solutions for all 12 HWs and all 12 quizzes, but most importantly for HW 9-12 and Quiz 9-12!!!
  • The Department of Mathematics and Statistics has developed some general strategies for the preparation of Math Final Exams. Most of these are also applicable for the preparation of Stat Final Exams - just ignore the specific Math components. Here is the link: http://www.usu.edu/asc/assistance/pdf/preparing_math_final_exams.pdf
    
    
• 3) Formula Sheet
  
  In the final, you will be allowed again to use a formula sheet (1 sheet only, letter size, handwritten, text on both sides). This formula sheet can contain all useful information such as formulas, definitions, sample calculations, and solutions or solution outlines (from homeworks, quizzes, past exams, the Web, etc.). Your name must appear in the upper right corner. There is no need to copy tables (such as the normal table, t-table, Chi-Square table, etc.) as those will be provided during the exam when needed. Before the final, add missing information from Chapters 5, 6, 7, 9, and 12 (as far as discussed in class) to your formula sheet - or create a completely new formula sheet that covers Chapters 1 to 7, 9, and 12.
  
  
• 4) Final Review Session
  
  Tawney will hold a last review session for the final on Fr 4/28/17, 4:30pm-6:30pm in Huntsman Hall (HH) 222. Check online whether there are any changes to the drop-in tutoring at the TSC during the last week of classes before you go there.
  
  
• 5) Final Exam: Time and Location
  
  The final will take place on Mo 5/1/2017, 9:30am-11:20am, in our usual classroom in Old Main 121. In addition to your formula sheet, you are only allowed to use a stand-alone calculator (but you can't use a calculator that is part of a cell phone). Cell phones, tablets, laptop computers, smart watches, headphones, earbuds, etc. are not permitted during the final exam. Make sure that such devices are fully enclosed in a bag or sleeve. Please mute all your devices before the start of the final exam. Check in advance that the batteries for your calculator are strong enough or bring replacement batteries as a possible backup.