Stat 1000: Things to OMIT from my book as they won't cover these topics this year

Published: Sun, 04/05/15

Please note that the following parts of my book can be omitted as they no longer teach these topics or have not had time to cover them this year:
  • Omit questions 8 and 9 from Lesson 6: The Binomial Distribution.  Do make sure you have studied the end section about the Distribution of the Sample Proportion though and have done question 10.  You can also solve questions 8 and 9 using the p^ bell curve method taught in question 10.  This is just a more sensible approach since your formula sheet includes the p^ bell curve formula for standardizing p^ into a z score.
  • Omit question 8 from Lesson 7: The Distribution of the Sample MeanControl Charts are no longer required knowledge and will not appear on the exam.
  • Omit question 2 in Lesson 9: Hypothesis Testing for the Mean.  They no longer teach you the critical value method of testing hypotheses (see my revised 5 Steps to Test a Hypothesis below).  For the rest of my book, Lessons 9 to 11, any time a question asks you to compute a critical value, compute a P-value instead, or skip the question.
  • Only study up to the end of question 2 in Lesson 10: Inferences for Two Means.  They no longer teach the section on Inferences for Two-Sample Design.  However, you can also do question 5 in this lesson if you wish as more practice at matched pairs and as practice at identifying which data to use and which to ignore.
  • Make sure you study Lesson 11: Inferences about Proportions in its entirety.  Do note that all the formulas in this lesson are provided on your formula sheet.  Again, you will never be asked for a critical value in a hypothesis test for a proportion.
Grant's Revised Steps to Test Hypotheses

Important Note:  Unlike what I instruct in my book, make sure that you compute a P-value every single time that you perform a hypothesis test.  They have decided to not teach about critical values this term, so there is no need to use Table D to get z* or t*, the critical value, for any hypothesis test. (You will, of course, still use z* or t* for confidence intervals.) 

Because you are not using critical values, it therefore becomes essential to compute a P-value. 

Your five steps to test a hypothesis should now always be:

  1. State the Hypotheses and so establish whether the test is upper-tailed, lower-tailed, or two-tailed.
  2. State the given level of significance, alpha.  Let alpha = 5% if none is given.
  3. Compute the test statistic using the correct formula for z or t.
  4. Compute the P-value by marking the test statistic on a bell curve and shading the appropriate region according to your alternative hypothesis.
  5. State your conclusion knowing that you always reject Ho if the P-value < alpha.