Quiz - Week 1

03/10/2016, 15:15

Started on Monday, 3 October 2016, 2:58 PM

State Finished
Completed on

Monday, 3 October 2016, 3:14 PM

Time taken 15 mins 42 secs

Marks

4.00/5.00

Grade 80.00 out of 100.00

Feedback

This week you have done a very good job, keep up the good work!

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Quiz - Week 1

03/10/2016, 15:15

Question 1

Look at the three variables below: would you describe each variable as

Correct

categorical, ordinal, or continuous?

Mark 1.00 out of

1.00

Variable 1 - A variable coded 1 for people with low political engagement, 2

for people with medium political engagement, and 3 for people who are
highly politically engaged
Variable 2 - Whether or not a person has voted in the 2015 General
Election
Variable 3 - Amount of money spent by someone to support the
Statistician Party in the last General Election
Select one:
a. Variable 1: continuous - Variable 2: categorical - Variable
3: ordinal
b. All variables are continuous
c. Variable 1: ordinal - Variable 2: categorical - Variable 3:
continuous
This is the correct answer!
d. All variables are ordinal

Your answer is correct.

Variable 1 has a clear order in its structure (low to high political
engagement) . This is an ordinal variable. Also note how the distance on
the scale between 1 and 2 is not the same as the distance between 2 and
3.
Variable 2 is dividing people into two groups: those who voted in 2015
and those who did not. This is a categorical variable (it's either yes or no,
on or o, one or zero).
Variable 3 is an amount of money and can take all sorts of values. This is
a continuous variable (some people will have spent 1.20, some others
5806.40, etc.)
The correct answer is: Variable 1: ordinal - Variable 2: categorical Variable 3: continuous

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Quiz - Week 1

Question 2
Incorrect
Mark 0.00 out of
1.00

03/10/2016, 15:15

Looking at the frequency table below identify the mode:

Did you
vote in the
last
General
Election?
Answer

Yes

3503 59.3

No

2402 40.7

Total 5905 100.0

Select one:
a. The mode is "no"
b. The mode is "yes"
c. It depends
d. The mode does not exist
Unless all the values of a variable are
the same then there is at least one mode for that variable, see the
explanation on how to find it in this case

Your answer is incorrect.

The mode is simply the most frequent value for a variable. In this case
3503 individuals out of 5905 (59.3%) have voted in the last General
Election. Yes is therefore the mode for this variable.
The correct answer is: The mode is "yes"

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Quiz - Week 1

Question 3
Correct
Mark 1.00 out of
1.00

03/10/2016, 15:15

A researcher is asking members of the UK public how they rate the work
of PM David Cameron in the first months of government. The variable is
ordinal with answers between 1 (strongly disapprove) and 10 (strongly
approve)
Look at the answers she collected below and identify the median for the
variable:
3,6,1,8,2,7,5,9,5,3,1,6,2,9,3,6,3,8,4

Select one:
a. 6
b. 5

Correct!

c. There is no median
d. 3

Your answer is correct.

The median is the value that divides our data in half (or, simply put, the
value right in the middle). To find the median we first have to reorder our
values from smaller to larger as illustrated below:
1,1,2,2,3,3,3,3,4,5,5,6,6,6,7,8,8,9,9
Once we have reordered the values we cut o first and last from the list
multiple times until we get to the value in the middle - in this case 5
The correct answer is: 5

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Quiz - Week 1

Question 4
Correct
Mark 1.00 out of
1.00

03/10/2016, 15:15

A researcher has collected data on the hourly pay rate of policy

researchers in British Think Thanks. Use the data provided below to
calculate the standard deviation for this variable:
13.7, 14.1, 15.2, 11.3, 25.9
Select one:
a. 32.41
b. 0
c. 5.69

Correct!

d. -3.54

Your answer is correct.

To calculate the standard deviation we need to follow a few steps:
(1) We calculate the mean:

(2) We calculate the standard deviation using the following formula:

We then calculate:

The correct answer is: 5.69

Question 5

The picture below summarises, using the mean and the standard

Correct

deviation, a sample of 8412 individuals who responded to questions in a

survey.

Mark 1.00 out of

1.00

- Gender is a variable with value 1 for male, and 0 for female

- Age is a variable with values between 18 and 100
- Income is a variable with value 1 if the respondent supports income
redistribution, value 2 if the respondent has mixed opinions on income
distribution, and value 3 if the respondent does not support income
redistribution.

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Quiz - Week 1

03/10/2016, 15:15

Which of the facts reported below is not correct:

Select one:
a. It is impossible to say how many individuals are men in the sample.
Correct!
b. The mean for age tells us that the average individual in this sample
is about 47 years old.
c. With a mean for income between 1 and 2, we could say that our
sample on average has mixed opinions tending on support for income
distribution

Your answer is correct.

You can actually tell how many individuals in our sample are male by
looking at the mean of Gender. Here's a quick explanation:
The means of dummy variables have a very useful interpretation: it is the
frequency of the individuals who were coded 1 (in this case male).
Substantively with data like this you can say that 51.5% of individuals are
male in this sample! If our sample is made of 8412 individuals then about
4332 individuals are male.
Careful though: you can use this trick only if your variable is a dummy!
The correct answer is: It is impossible to say how many individuals are
men in the sample.

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