GRANDMASTERS CONSULTANCY (GMC)

BRIDGE CUM SKILL BUILDING TRAINING (BSBT)

FOUNDATION COURSE IN STATISTICAL AND QUANTITATIVE REASONING

PRACTICE QUESTIONS
MODULE-III

1. The 75th percentile is referred to as the

a) First quartile
b) Second quartile
c) Third quartile
d) Fourth quartile
2. Given the following set of data, what is the variance? [ 2 6 8 3 7 9 1 4 ]
a) 40
b) 5
c) 2.74
d) 7.5
3. I collected some data from a sample of 30 students: 10 with BA degrees, 10 with MA
degrees, and 10 with Ph.D.s. I asked each student how long it took them to earn
their degree, then calculated some statistics on these data. Here are my results.
PHD MA BA
N of cases 10 10 10
1.00 1.00 1.00
Minimum
0 0 0
12.0 11.0 10.0
Maximum
00 00 00
6.50 4.60 4.80
Mean
0 0 0
13.1 11.3 10.1
Variance
67 78 78
Standard 3.62 3.37 3.19
dev 9 3 0

Which of the following is a true, well-written statement about the results shown
above?
a) It takes people longer to earn Ph.D.s (M = 6.50) than MAs (M = 4.60) and there is
more variability in how long it takes to earn a Ph.D. (s2 = 13.17) than there is in how
long it takes to earn an MA (s2 = 11.38).
b) It takes people longer to earn MAs (M = 4.60) than BAs (M = 4.80) and there is
more variability in how long it takes to earn a Ph.D. (22 = 13.17) than there is in how
long it takes to earn an MA (22 = 11.38).
c) It takes people longer to earn Ph.D.s than MAs and there is more variability in how
long it takes to earn an MA than there is in how long it takes to earn a Ph.D.
 d) It takes people longer to earn Ph.D.s than MAs and there is more variability in how
long it takes to earn a Ph.D. than there is in how long it takes to earn an MA.

FOR Q.4 and Q.5:

Use the following data set to answer the next three questions.
Value 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Frequency 8 12 10 4 3 0 0 1

4. What is the standard deviation?

a) 2.11
b) 80.55
c) 1.46
d) 1.48
5. How would you describe this distribution?
a) Approximately normal
b) Positively skewed
c) Negatively skewed
d) Rectangular
6. The sum of squared deviations is a good measure of variability except
a) It uses the mean in its calculation.
b) It can only be used with ratio data.
c) It does not take N into account.
d) It can not be used in any other statistical analyses.
7. If I am interested in describing only the variability in my data sample, but not in
making an estimate for the population variance, I should use
a) The population parameter.
b) The unbiased estimate of the variance.
c) The biased estimate of the variance.
d) The variance estimate that divides by (N-1).
8. In the assumed mean method, if A is the assumed mean, than deviation di is :
a) xi + A
b) xi – A
c) A – xi
d) none of these
9. Which of the following is used to represent a known value for the population
variance?
a) s
b) σ
c) σ2
d) s2

10. In case of open-ended classes, an appropriate measure of dispersion to be used is

a) Range
 b) Quartile Deviation
c) Mean Deviation
11. Standard Deviation
The standard deviation of a set of 50 observation is 8. If each observation is
multiplied by 2, then the value of S.D. will be
a) 4
b) 8
c) 16
d) None of these
12. Which of the following measures of dispersion is affected most by extreme values of
observations in a data set?
a) Range
b) Quartile Deviation
c) Mean Deviation
d) Standard Deviation
13. Which of the following is a relative measure of dispersion?
a) Standard Deviation
b) Variance
c) Coefficient of Variation
d) All of these
14. If mean and coefficient of variation of a set of data is 10 and 5, then S.D. is
a) 10
b) 50
c) 5
d) None
15. A researcher has collected the following sample data. The mean of the sample is 5.
3 5 12 3 2
The range is
a) 1
b) 2
c) 10
d) 12
16. Which of the following is not a measure of dispersion?
a) the range
b) the quartiles
c) the standard deviation
d) the variance

17. Which of the following provides a measure of central location for the data?
a) standard deviation
b) mean
 c) variance
d) range

18. The hourly wages of a sample of 130 system analysts are given below.
Mean = 60 range = 20
Mode = 73 variance = 324
Median = 74
The coefficient of variation equals
a) 0.30%
b) 30%
c) 5.4%
d) 54%
19. The difference between the largest and the smallest data values is the
a) Variance
b) interquartile range
c) range
d) coefficient of variation
20. Which of the following is not a measure of central location?
a) Mean
b) Median
c) Variance
d) Mode
21. Which of the following is a measure of dispersion?
a) Percentiles
b) Quartiles
c) Range
d) all of the above
22. The numerical value of the standard deviation can never be
a) larger than the variance
b) zero
c) negative
d) smaller than the variance
23. The variance can never be
a) Zero
b) larger than the standard deviation
c) negative
d) smaller than the standard deviation
24. The sum of deviations of the individual data elements from their mean is
a) always greater than zero
b) always less than zero
c) sometimes greater than and sometimes less than zero, depending on the data
elements
d) always equal to zero
25. Which of the following symbols represents the standard deviation of the population?
a) 2
b) 
 c) 
d) d.
26. Which of the following symbols represents the variance of the population?
a) 2
b) 
c) 
d) d.
27. Measures of central tendency are known as_________
a) standard deviation
b) sum
c) average
d) minimum
28. __________ quartile is also known as upper quartiles
a) First
b) Second
c) Third
d) forth
29. __________ quartile is also known as lower quartiles
a) First
b) Second
c) Third
d) Forth
30. The range of 12,5,7,22,13,18,25,20,21 is
a) 15
b) 12
c) 20
d) 25
31. The square of standard deviation is known as _________
a) Mean
b) standard deviation
c) variance
d) none of these
32. Standard deviation is --------------------------------
a) relative measure
b) absolute measure
c) both
d) none of these
33. Standard deviation is always taken from --------------
a) Median
b) Mode
c) Mean
d) none of these

34. The standard deviation of 5,5,5,5,5,5,5 will be _________---

a) 1
b) 0
 c) 5
d) none of these
35. Which of the following is true regarding factors affecting variability?
a) Greater variability is found in smaller samples.
b) Random sampling results in distributions with large amounts of variability.
c) The independent variable should not affect variability.
d) An insensitive dependent measure will produce a lot of variability.
36. The first quartile
a) contains at least one third of the data elements
b) is the same as the 25th percentile
c) is the same as the 50th percentile
d) is the same as the 75th percentile
37. The interquartile range is
a) the 50th percentile
b) another name for the variance
c) the difference between the largest and smallest values
d) the difference between the third quartile and the first quartile
38. The measure of dispersion that is influenced most by extreme values is
a) the variance
b) the standard deviation
c) the range
d) the interquartile range
39. The descriptive measure of dispersion that is based on the concept of a deviation
about the mean is
a) the range
b) the interquartile range
c) the absolute value of the range
d) the standard deviation
40. The median of a sample will always equal the
a) Mode
b) Mean
c) 50th percentile
d) all of the above
41. What is the population standard deviation for the numbers: 75, 83, 96, 100, 121 and
125?
a) 16.9
b) 17.1
c) 17.6
d) 18.2
42. Ten friends scored the following marks in their end-of-year math exam:
23%, 37%, 45%, 49%, 56%, 63%, 63%, 70%, 72% and 82%
What was the standard deviation of their marks?
a) 15.1%
b) 15.5%
 c) 16.9%
d) 18..6%
43. Nine friends each guessed the number of marbles in a jar.
When the answer was revealed they found they had guessed well (and one was the
winner!)
Here is how close they each got:
-9, -7, -4, -1, 0, 2, 7, 9, 12
What was the standard deviation of their errors?
a) 3.9
b) 5.5
c) 6.2
d) 6.8
44. What is the standard deviation of the first 10 natural numbers (1 to 10)?
a) 2.45
b) 2.87
c) 3.16
d) 8.25

45. The population standard deviation of the numbers 3, 8, 12, 17, and 25 is 7.563
correct to 3 decimal places.
What happens if each of the five numbers is multiplied by 3?
a) The standard deviation remains the same
b) The standard deviation is increased by 3
c) The standard deviation is multiplied by 3
d) The standard deviation is multiplied by 9
Objective Questions
46. The following data is given. Find a) the mean and b) the variance.

Class Intervals f
0 - Under 10 10
10 - Under 20 20
20 - Under 30 40
30 - Under 40 20
40 - Under 50 10
Total 100

47. The following sample data is given. f M is frequency in March, f A in April.

Find a) the means and b) the standard deviations. c) Have these statistics changed
substantially between the months?
 Class Intervals fM fA
$0 - under $2000 6 10
$2000 - under $4000 13 14
$4000 - under $5000 17 13
$5000 - under $8000 10 10
$8000 - under $10000 4 0
$10000 - under $12000 0 3
Total 50 50

ANSWERS

1. (c) 23. (c)

2. (d) 24. (d)
3. (a) 25. (b)
4. (a) 26. (a)
5. (d) 27. (c)
6. (c) 28. (c)
7. (c) 29. (a)
30. (c)
8. (b)
31. (c)
9. (c) 32. (b)
10. (b) 33. (c)
11. (c) 34. (b)
12. (d) 35. (a)
13. (c) 36. (b)
14. (b) 37. (d)
15. (c) 38. (c)
39. (d)
16. (b)
40. (c)
17. (b)
41. (d)
18. (b)
19. (c) 42. (c)
20. (c) 43. (d)
21. (c) 44. (b)
22. (c)
45. (c)
Objective Questions
46. Mean = 25, variance =121.212
47. Mean = 4.17; Standard Deviations = 2.1363, 2.5367

Though the mean has fallen somewhat (6%), there are more items in both the largest and
smallest categories, making the standard deviation larger (by 19%).