First Study Guide

Biometry
Stat 412

Midterm Study Guide

 Text Box: You do not need to memorize any formulas pertaining to these topics, they will be provided if needed (see below). However, you do need to be able to use and interpret all formulas and obtain critical values of X2,from a table which will be provided if needed. Also  be able to interpret MINITAB output on all topics (use handouts and homework as guides of what to expect).

I. Major focus of exam

Scientific method & Hypothesis testing

Data, Samples & Populations (concepts and definitions)

Measures of central tendency (mean, mode, median)

Measures of dispersion (s2,s se, range)

Chi-square analysis

Contingency tables

II. Unifying Concepts

1)  Why do we use the scientific method to study the natural world? Why can we only test the null hypothesis? Why must the null and alternate hypothesis account for all possible conclusions about the data? Know the steps required to test a hypothesis.

2) What is the goal of statistics? What is its most fundamental assumption and why? What is the difference between a census and a sample? Parameters and statistics? Describe differences between quantitative and qualitative traits, accuracy and precision. Understand the process of rounding off and the concept of significant figures.

3) What do the mean, median and mode measure? When are they similar? different?

4) What do the range, variance, standard deviation and standard error measure? How are they related?

5)  What type of data are required for a chi-square analysis? Given a hypothesis know how to generate predicted values. What does the magnitude of the test statistic, X2, indicate? What does the critical value represent? What is a contingency table?

III. Important formulas: (do not memorize but know how to use)