AP®StatisticsCollege BoardExam QuestionsUnit 3: Collecting DataSampling Methods & Bias

Sampling Methods & Bias (College Board AP® Statistics)

Exam Questions

5 mins5 questions
1
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An economist is planning to do a survey about the salaries of different workers. Which of the following is the best example of nonresponse bias?

  • When deciding who to survey, the economist will overlook people who are not workers.

  • The wording of the questions in the survey may lead workers to answer in a particular way.

  • Workers who are selected for the survey but who do not respond may have different views from workers who did respond.

  • Workers selected for the survey may find it uncomfortable to talk about their salaries, which could affect how they answer the questions.

  • The workers selected for the survey do not understand the questions in the survey.

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2
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A marketing company wants to survey users of a streaming platform to measure their customer satisfaction ratings. They divide the users into those who are children (aged 0 to 17) and those who are adults (aged 18+), and then a random sample of 80 users from each group is taken. Which of the following statements is true?

  • This is a stratified random sample because random sampling was done in each group (stratum).

  • This is a convenience sample because the users for the sample were obtained easily and quickly.

  • This is a random cluster sample because random sampling was done in each group (cluster).

  • This is a random cluster sample because the age groups used were randomly selected.

  • This is a systematic sample because the users were systematically split by age into either 0 to 17 or 18 and above.

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3
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In a particular country, 15% of the population has a blood type that is classified as Rh-negative. In a simple random sample of 100 people from the population, 14 people were found to have the Rh-negative blood type. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for the difference between the population results and the sample results?

  • Non-random sampling

  • Confounding

  • Variability due to sampling

  • Bias

  • Not sampling the whole population

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41 mark

Pet owners in the city of Chicago can choose whether or not to buy pet insurance from a pet insurance company called Buddy. The insurance company recently changed its prices, so a vet decided to survey customers to see what they thought of the new prices. For a whole month, each time a customer who had Buddy pet insurance entered, the vet would roll a fair six-sided die, and if it landed on an even number, the vet would ask the customer for their opinion on the new prices, but if it landed on an odd number, the vet would not ask the customer. The vet later claimed that 65 percent of all pet owners in Chicago are in favor of the new prices. Which of the following is true?

  • The 65 percent from the survey is a representative view of the opinion of the population of Chicago on the new price changes, as a die was used to randomly select pet owners.

  • If the sampling procedure had been conducted over a week, not a month, there might have been a reduction in bias.

  • No treatment was given to any of the pet owners, so conclusions cannot be made about the opinions of pet owners in Chicago.

  • Pet owners can choose whether or not to purchase pet insurance, which means the sampling procedure might be biased.

  • It would have been better to allow pet owners to volunteer a response to the survey, rather than using a die to decide.

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5
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A university wants to estimate the average GPA of its students. The university has three colleges: Arts & Sciences, Business, and Engineering. A random sample of students will be selected from each of these colleges. Selected students will be asked for their GPA. Why is stratification used in this situation?

  • To decrease the variability in estimates of the proportion of students in each of the three colleges.

  • To decrease the variability in estimates of the mean GPA.

  • To remove bias when estimating the mean GPA.

  • To reduce bias when estimating the mean GPA.

  • To remove bias when estimating the proportion of students in each of the three colleges.

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