Winter 1998 EXAM 1

You may not use any extra sheets of paper to answer the following questions. Whenever possible, show your work for potential partial credit. NOTE: When performing numerical calculations, keep at least 4 digits after a decimal. (i.e., do NOT round .2265 to .23 or .227)

1. Explain the difference between qualitative and quantitative data and the difference between cross sectional and time series data. (5 points)

 

 

 

 

2. Discuss the difference between statistics as numerical facts and statistics as a discipline or field of study. (5 points)

 

 

 

 

Use the following table that describes a sample of junior college faculty members to answer #3 and #4.

Junior College Faculty Salaries

Professor

Department

Degree

Gender

Years

Salary

1

Business

Masters

F

2

$23,602

2

Elec. Engineer

Bachelors

M

0

$30,657

3

Math

Bachelors

F

13

$30,831

4

English

Masters

M

6

$24,772

5

Computers

Bachelors

F

4

$22,981

6

Theatre

Masters

M

6

$27,129

7

Nursing

Masters

F

19

$35,133

8

Sociology

Masters+30

M

13

$35,132

9

Phys. Educ.

Masters

F

4

$21,669

10

Psychology

Masters

M

22

$43,208

  1. How many variables are in this set of data and which are quantitative and which are qualitative? How many observations are in this set of data? (10 points)

 

 

4. Construct a frequency and relative frequency distribution for the SALARY column of data. Make some observations about the distribution of salaries at this junior college. (10 points)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following table describes recent stock prices for Adolph Coors stock.

Table 2 Coors

DATE

High

Low

Close

Volume

01/26/98

33.125

30.875

32.563

451,600

01/20/98

33.000

30.750

30.906

540,600

01/12/98

33.000

29.250

31.375

1,165,000

01/05/98

33.750

29.250

29.625

900,000

12/29/97

35.375

30.250

33.688

868,700

12/22/97

34.125

30.750

31.250

525,100

12/15/97

36.000

32.500

32.750

982,600

12/08/97

36.250

33.500

35.250

630,600

The following table describes recent stock prices for Microsoft stock.

DATE

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

VOLUME

01/26/98

145.875

138.453

145.188

21,477,300

01/20/98

139.875

134.000

138.250

46,621,800

01/12/98

135.375

124.375

135.250

40,459,900

01/05/98

133.625

125.875

127.000

46,857,300

12/29/97

131.500

122.125

131.125

28,946,900

12/22/97

130.000

118.000

120.750

30,882,300

12/15/97

140.375

126.250

128.688

54,752,400

12/08/97

146.625

136.000

136.750

36,583,400

5. If you were asked by a friend with too much money, "Which of the above stocks has the least relative volatility?" how would you respond? Show all work and thoroughly explain your reasoning. (20 points)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The table below is a table of correlation coefficients for some of the variables in the Student Database. For example, the correlation between GPA and itself is 1. The correlation between GPA and the amount of Fast Food consumption is -.15385.

GPA

# F.FOOD

# ALCOHOL

TV Hours

STUDY Hours

# TOBACCO

GPA

1

F.FOOD

-0.15385

1

ALCOHOL

-0.49316

0.253174

1

TV

-0.26423

0.133057

0.326252

1

STUDY

0.170189

-0.20703

-0.31201

0.083723

1

TOBACCO

-0.23166

0.272932

0.294613

0.121934

-0.12635

1
  1. What does this table tell you about the influence of various forms of entertainment on a Hanover student’s cumulative GPA? In other words, interpret these correlation coefficients. (10 points)

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  2. Based upon the above information, write a brief policy statement to President Nichols that outlines a campus-wide plan to improve student grade point averages. (10 points)

    3.  

     

     

     

     

     

  3. The existence of an outlier may necessitate the removal of that observation. Why? What does an outlier do to our analysis? (10 points)

    4.  

     

     

     

     

  4. Why do we use the empirical rule to look for outliers? (10 points)

    5.  

     

     

     

  5. Based upon the stock prices of Coors in the above table, what range of closing prices would serve to alert you to the presence of an outlier? (5 points)

    6.  

     

     

     

     

     

  6. If you saw a Coors stock price that you believed to be an outlier, would you delete it? Why? (5 points)

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