Top Statics Interview Questions & Answers:

1. Simpsons Paradox occurs when?

* a) No baseline risk is given, so it is not know whether a a high relative risk has practical importance
* b) High relative risk has practical importance
* b) A confounding variable rather than the explanatory variable is responsible for a change in the response variable.
* c) The direction of the relationship between two variables changes when the categories of a confounding variable are taken into account.
* d) The results of a test are statistically significant but are really due to chance.

Answer - c

2. Pick the choice that best completes the following sentence. If a relationship between two variables is called statistically significant, it means the investigators think the variables are?

* a) Related in the population represented by the sample.
* b) Not related in the population represented by the sample
* c) Related in the sample due to chance alone
* d) Very important

Answer - a

3. A chi-square test involves a set of counts called “expected counts.” What are the expected counts?

* a) Hypothetical counts that would occur of the alternative hypothesis were true.
* b) Hypothetical counts that would occur if the null hypothesis were true
* c) The actual counts that did occur in the observed data
* d) The long-run counts that would be expected if the observed counts are representative.

Answer - b

4. A chi-square test of the relationship between personal perception of emotional health and marital status led to rejection of the null hypothesis, indicating that there is a relationship between these two variables. One conclusion that can be drawn is?

* a) Marriage leads to better emotional health.
* b) Better emotional health leads to marriage.
* c) The more emotionally healthy someone is, the more likely are they to be married
* d) There are likely to be confounding variables related to both emotional health and marital status

Answer - d

5. Most of the women in this sample felt that their actual weight was?

* a) About the same as their ideal weight
* b) less than their ideal weight.
* c) greater than their ideal weight.
* d) No more than 2 pounds different from their ideal weight

Answer - c

6. The median of the distribution is approximately?

* a) -10 pounds
* b) 10 pounds
* c) 30 pounds
* d) 50 pounds

Answer - b

7. Scenario: The following histogram shows the distribution of the difference between the actual and “ideal” weights for 119 female students. Notice that percent is given on the vertical axis. Ideal weights are responses to the question “What is your ideal weight”. The difference = actual -ideal.

What is the approximate shape of the distribution?

* a) Nearly symmetric
* b) Skewed to the left
* c) Skewed to the right
* d) Bimodal (has more than one peak).

Answer - c

8. The newspaper also reported, The number of children in the study who contracted asthma was relatively small Answer - 265 of 3,535. From this information and the information given in the original quote, which of the following could not be computed?

* a) The baseline risk of getting asthma without participating in after-school sports
* b) The overall risk of getting asthma for the children in this study
* c) The relative risk of getting asthma for children who routinely participate in vigorous after-school sports on smoggy days and their non-athletic peers.
* d) All of the above could be computed

Answer - a

9. Scenario: A newspaper article reported, Children who routinely compete in vigorous after-school sports on smoggy days are three times more likely to get asthma than their non-athletic peers. (Sacramento Bee, Feb 1, 2002, p. A1) Of the following, which is the most important additional information that would be useful before making a decision about participation in school sports?

* a) Where was the study conducted?
* b) How many students in the study participated in after-school sports?
* c) What is the baseline risk for getting asthma?
* d) Who funded the study?

Answer - c

10. people over 30?

* a) 2.5
* b) 0.4
* c) 0.5
* d) 30%

Answer - a