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AP Statistics Take Home Exam: Confidence Intervals for Proportions (Open Ended: 33
points)
1. In 2002 the medical journal The Lancet reported that 335 of 573 patients suffering from
Crohns disease responded positively to injections of the arthritis-fighting drug infliximab.
a. Determine if it appropriate to create a one-proportion z-interval for this data. (6
points)

b. Calculate a 98% confidence interval for the proportion of Crohns patients who
responded positively to injections of infliximab. Show all appropriate work work. (4
points)

c. Interpret the meaning of this interval, in context. (4 points)

d. If we decreased the level of confidence to 90%... (2 points)

i. How would the width of the interval be affected?

ii. How would the margin of error be affected?

e. If we increased the sample size (2 points)
i. How would the width of the interval be affected?
ii. How would the margin of error be affected?

f.

Another medical study plans to estimate the percentage of Crohns patients who
respond positively to infliximab to within 4%, with 95% confidence. What is a
conservative estimate (assume p-hat is 0.5) for the number of students he should
sample? (3 points)

2. A statistics professor at a local university asked her students whether or not they were
registered to vote. In a sample of 50 of her students (randomly sampled from her 700
students), 70% said they were registered to vote.
a. Estimate the true proportion/percentage of students (at this college) who are
registered to vote (with 90% confidence). Assume the conditions for inference have
been satisfied. Show any appropriate work in the space below. (4 points)

b. Explain the meaning of 90% confidence in this context. (3 points)

c. According to a university official, 90% of the schools students are registered to

vote. Based on your confidence interval, do you believe this claim? Why or why not?
(3 points)

3.

A local business created a confidence interval to estimate the percentage of residents

who have seen their advertisements. The resulting interval was (48.44%, 57.211%). Find
the value of p-hat and the margin of error for this interval. (2 points)

1. Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between a parameter and a statistic?
A. A parameter has a sampling distribution with the statistic as its mean.
B. A parameter has a sampling distribution that can be used to determine what values the statistic is likely to have in
repeated samples.
C. A parameter is used to estimate a statistic.
D. A statistic is used to estimate a parameter.

2. Which of the following statements is correct about a parameter and a statistic associated with repeated random
samples of the same size from the same population?
A. Values of a parameter will vary from sample to sample but values of a statistic will not.
B. Values of both a parameter and a statistic may vary from sample to sample.
C. Values of a parameter will vary according to the sampling distribution for that parameter.
D. Values of a statistic will vary according to the sampling distribution for that statistic.

3. Five hundred (500) random samples of size n=900 are taken from a large population in which 10% are left-handed.
The proportion of the sample that is left-handed is found for each sample and a histogram of these 500 proportions is
drawn. Which interval covers the range into which about 68% of the values in the histogram will fall?
A. .1 .010
B. .1 .0134
C. .1 .0167
D. .1 .020
4. A randomly selected sample of 400 students at a university with 15-week semesters was asked whether or not they think
the semester should be shortened to 14 weeks (with longer classes). Fortysix percent (46%) of the 400 students surveyed
answered "yes." Which one of the following statements about the number 46% is correct?
A. It is a sample statistic.
B. It is a population parameter.
C. It is a margin of error.
D. It is a standard error.

5. A poll is done to estimate the proportion of adult Americans who like their jobs. The poll is based on a random sample
of 400 individuals. What is the conservative margin of error of this poll for a 95% confidence interval?
A. 0.10

B. 0.05

C. 0.04

D. 0.025

6. When constructing a Confidence Interval, which case is preferable?

A. large confidence level, small confidence interval

B. small confidence level, small confidence interval

C. small confidence level, large confidence interval

D. large confidence level, large confidence interval

7. Which of the following is NOT a point estimate (estimate of a single value?

A. x-bar

B. p-hat or p-prime

C. Sx

D. sigma

8. A study was done to determine the proportion of voters that feel that their local government is doing an
adequate job. Of the 160 voters surveyed, 144 feel that their local government is doing an adequate job.
Calculate the 95% confidence interval for the true proportion of voters that feel that their government is doing
an adequate job.

A. (0.85, 0.95)

B. 0.90

C. (0.80, 1.00)

D. (144, 160)

9. To reduce the margin of error in a future study, which of the following should be done?

A. increase the sample size n

B. decrease the sample size n

C. conduct a biased survey

D. increase the confidence level

10. 1,600 of 2,000 voters say they plan to vote Republican. Use 0.95 degree of confidence to
find the population proportion interval.
A. 69.2 to 86.4%
B. 76.5 to 83.5%
C. 77.7 to 82.3%
D. 78.2 to 81.8%
E. none of the above