AP statistics Chapter 3 Practice Test Name ______________________

Describing Relationships Per ___ Date ________________

_____ 1. Japanese cherry trees tend to blossom early when spring weather is warm and later when spring
weather is cool. You are planning to study the relationship between the average March temperature (in ºC)
and the day in April when the first cherry blossom appeared over a 24-year period. In this study,
a.) Average March Temperature is the response variable, and you expect a negative association.
b.) Average March Temperature is the response variable, and you expect a positive association.
c.) Average March Temperature is the explanatory variable, and you expect a strong negative
association.
d.) Average March Temperature is the explanatory variable, and you expect a strong positive
association.
e.) Average March Temperature is the explanatory variable, and you expect very little association.

_____ 2. A study of king penguins looked for a relationship between how deep the penguins dived to seek
food and how long they stay under water. For all but the shallowest dives, there is a linear relationship that is
different for each bird. The equation y  2.69  0.0138 x where y is the dive duration (in min) and x is the
depth (in meters) of Bird A’s dive. If Bird A where to dive 200 meters, what is the predicted value for the
duration of the dive?
a.) 5.45 b.) 2.76 c.) 27.6 d.) 54.5 e.) none of these

_____ 3. Using the same study from #2, Bird A dived 300 meters for 7.13 minutes. What is the value of Bird
A’s residual?
a.) -0.3 b.) 0.3 c.) -2.99 d.) 2.99 e.) none of these

_____ 4. Using the same regression equation from #2, which of the following is not necessarily true?
a.) For each meter dived, the predicted duration of the dive increases 0.0138 minutes.
b.) A dive of 0 meters will have a predicted time of 2.69 minutes.
c.) The correlation between dive duration and depth of dive is 1.
d.) The correlation between dive duration and depth of dive is positive.
e.) If the average dive depth is 175 meters, then the average dive duration is 5.105 minutes

_____ 5. The correlation between the age of cars and their mileage is r = 0.906. This value was based on age
being measured in years and mileage measured by one mile. If we were to change the age of the vehicle to
age in months, the correlation would be
a.) Much smaller than 0.906
b.) Slightly smaller than 0.906
c.) Unchanged, equal to 0.906
d.) Slightly larger than 0.906
e.) Much larger than 0.906

_____ 6. The correlation between the age of cars and their mileage is r = 0.906. This means that
a.) There is no relation between the age of cars and their mileage.
b.) When the age of cars increases, the mileage decreases.
c.) When the age of cars increases, the mileage increases.
d.) When the age of cars go up by one year, the mileage increases by 9,060 miles
e.) We made a mistake because the correlation makes no sense in this situation.

_____ 7. All but one of the following statements contains an error. Which statement could be correct?
a.) There is a correlation of 0.67 between the position a basketball player plays and their height.
b.) The correlation between amount of sun and fruit yield is r = 0.46.
c.) We found a high correlation between amount of studying and high test scores: r = 1.25
d.) The correlation between gender and height is r = -0.61
e.) We found a correlation between distance traveled and the time spent driving is r = 60 miles per
hour.
8. Determine if each statement is true or false.
_____ a) Correlation requires clearly identified explanatory and response variables.
_____ b.) Regression requires clearly identified explanatory and response variables.
_____ c.) Scatterplots require that both variables be quantitative.

_____ d.) Every least-squares regression line passes through x, y  

_____ e.) Correlation changes as units of the variables change.
_____ f.) The least-squares regression line minimizes the distances between the actual response variable
values and the predicted values.
_____ g.) Switching the explanatory and response variables will NOT change the least-squares regression
line.
_____ h.) The slope of the line is very sensitive to outliers with large residuals.
_____ i.) A value of r2 close to 1 does NOT guarantee that the relationship between the variables is linear.
_____ j.) A value of r2 close to 1 show that the explanatory variable is the cause of the response variable.

Scientists examined the activity level of fish at 7 different temperatures. Fish activity was rated on a scale of 0
(no activity) to 100 (maximal activity). The temperature was measured in degrees Celsius. A computer
regression printout is given below.
Regression Analysis: Fish Activity
Predictor Coef SE Coef T P
Constant 148.617 10.71 13.9 0.0001
Temperature -3.21667 0.4533 -7.1 0.0009

S = 4.785 R-sq = 91.0% R-sq (adj) = 89.2%

_____ 9. Which of the following is correct?
a.) If the temperature increases by 1ºC, then the activity of the fish is expected to drop by 3.21667
b.) If the fish activity increases by 1, then the temperature is expected to drop by 3.21667
c.) If the temperature increases by 1ºC, then the activity of the fish is expected to rise by 3.21667
d.) If the fish activity increases by 1, then the temperature is expected to rise by 3.21667
e.) The predicted activity level of the fish is 148.617 if the temperature is -3.21667

_____ 10. Which is false?

a.) This least squares regression model would make a prediction of an activity level 4.785 higher than
the actual activity level at 27ºC.
b.) The correlation for the scatterplot is 0.9539.
c.) At a temperature of 0, the predicted activity level would be 148.617
d.) The least squares regression model accounts for 91% of the variation in the activity level.
e.) For a temperature of 47ºC, the predicted activity level is -2.56649.

_____ 11. A study of fuel consumption of a car at various speeds was

conducted. The data was plotted and a regression line was calculated. The
residual plot is illustrated to the left. What does the plot tell you?
a.) The residual plot is not an appropriate means for evaluating a linear
model.
b.) The residual plot confirms the linearity of the data.
c.) The residual plot indicates the data is not linear.
d.) The residual plot does not confirm or rule out linearity.
e.) The residual plot suggests that the model may be linear, but more data
plots are needed.
_____ 12. Some descriptive statistics for a set of test scores are shown below. For this test, a certain student
has a standardized score of z = -1.2. What score did this student receive on the test?

Variable n mean std dev std error min Q1 median Q3 max

Test Scores 50 1045.7 221.9 31.4 628.9 877.7 1024.7 1219.5 1577.1
(a) 266.28
(b) 779.42
(c) 1008.02
(d) 1083.38
(e) 1311.98

_____ 13. The distribution of the diameters of a particular variety of oranges is approximately normal with a
standard deviation of 0.3 inch. How does the diameter of an orange at the 67th percentile compare with the
mean diameter?
(a) 0.201 inch below the mean
(b) 0.132 inch below the mean
(c) 0.132 inch above the mean
(d) 0.201 inch above the mean
(e) 0.440 inch above the mean

_____ 14. The table below shows the sample size, mean, and median for two samples of measurements.
What is the mean for the combined sample of 47 measurements?
n Mean Median
Sample 1 21 42.6 45.0
Sample 2 26 49.2 48.5
42.6  49.2 45.0  48.5 21(42.6)  26(49.2) 21(45.0)  26(48.5)
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 2 47 47
(e) It cannot be determined from the information given

______ 15. Using the information from problem 14, what is the median of the combined sample of 47
measurements?

42.6  49.2 45.0  48.5 21(42.6)  26(49.2) 21(45.0)  26(48.5)

(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 2 47 47
(e) It cannot be determined from the information given
Free Response:
Show all of your work. Indicate clearly the methods you use, because you will be graded on the correctness of
your methods as well as on the accuracy and completeness of your results and explanations.

15. Long-Term records from the Serengeti National

Park in Tanzania show interesting ecological
relationships. When wildebeest are more abundant,
they graze grass more heavily, so there are fewer fires
and more trees grow. Lions feed more successfully
when there are more trees, so the lion population
increases. Researchers collected data on one part of
the cycle, wildebeest abundance (in thousands) and
the percent of the grass area burned in the same year.
The data is plotted on the scatter plot.

A.) Describe what the scatterplot reveals about the relationship between the amount of wildebeests and the
percent of grass area burned.

B.) Suppose another data point (1000, 80) that is 1,000,000 wildebeests and 80% grass area burned, were
added to the plot. What effect, if any, will this new point have on the correlation between these two
variables? Explain.
 Below is the computer output for the regression of percent of grass area burned versus thousands of
wildebeests.

C.) What is the slope of the regression line? Interpret the slope in context of this problem?

D.) Explain what the quantity s = 15.9880 measures in the context of the problem?

E.) Based on the data, can we conclude that the number of wildebeests is responsible for the decline of the
percentage of grass burned? Explain.

16. Sarah’s parents are concerned that she seems short for her age. Their doctor has kept records of her
heights over time and has given you the following information.
Mean Standard deviation
x = Sarah’s age (in months) 51.0 8.5
y = Sarah’s height (in inches) 91.5 3.3
r = 0.994
A.) Find the equation of the least-squares regression line. Show your work.

B.) What percentage of the variation in Sarah’s height can be accounted for by this regression?