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Activity focus

  • basic definitions
  • population vs sample
  • parameter vs statistic
  • case vs variable

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Practice set

  1. A college wants to know average daily study hours of all first-year students. It surveys 120 first-year students.
    • identify population
    • identify sample
  2. “Average daily study hours of the 120 surveyed students” is a parameter or statistic?
  3. In a hospital dataset containing patient_id, age, blood_group, and temperature:
    • what is a case?
    • what are the variables?
  4. State whether each is descriptive or inferential:
    • chart of attendance by branch
    • using 200 voters to estimate support in a district

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Answer key

    • population: all first-year students
    • sample: 120 surveyed students
  2. Statistic
    • case: one patient
    • variables: patient_id, age, blood_group, temperature
    • chart of attendance by branch: descriptive
    • estimate from 200 voters: inferential

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MCQ traps

  • A sample used only for description is still a sample.
  • patient_id is a variable even if it is only an identifier.
  • Not every table or chart is inferential.