Practice Quiz with Solutions: Chapter 2 (15 min)

Before looking at these solutions, please work the practice quiz.

Disclaimer: This quiz is representative of the level of difficulty you should expect, but it doesn’t include every single topic from the week’s work. The real quiz may include some other topics and may skip some that are in this practice quiz. (The real quiz also may not word questions in the same way as the practice quiz. You should focus on the concepts, not a particular form of words.)

See also:  How to Take a Math Test

These solutions show about the same level of work I expect from you, though I add quite a bit of extra commentary. Please see Show Your Work for the what, why, and how.

Solution: Relative frequency is f/n. f = 25, and n = 35+10+25+45+20 = 135. Dividing 25/135 gives 0.185185... ≈ 0.19 or 19%

Common mistake: Some students divide 135/25 instead of 25/135. Relative frequency is always a decimal less than 1 (or a percent less than 100%).

Common mistake: Some students give the answer as 135/5 = 27. That’s the mean, but that’s not what the problem was asking for.

2(points: 2) Bert asked his fellow students how many books they read for pleasure in a year. He found that most of them read 0, 1, or 2 books, but some read 3 or more and a very few read as many as 10. (He plotted the histogram shown at right.) What is the word or short phrase we learned to describe the shape of this distribution?

Answer: skewed to the right

Solution:  For (a), you need the class marks, as shown in the completed table at right.

For (b), see Frequency Histograms and Polygons the Easy Way on the TI-83/84. The histogram is plotted at right, using the following values on the Window screen:

• Xmin = lower boundary of first class = 470
• Xmax = upper boundary of last class = 520
• XScl = class width = 10
• Ymin = 0
• Ymax ≥ the largest frequency. Use 50 or greater.
• Yscl = some convenient division of Ymax, such as 10
• Xres = 1

Answer: pie chart and bar chart

Common mistake: “Histogram” is not an acceptable answer. A histogram is used for displaying numeric data. On a histogram, the bars touch and the data have a definite numeric order. With a bar chart, the bars do not touch, and you can present them in any order you think helpful.