AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test Name
1. Directions: Show all 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 of your results and
explanation.
A researcher thinks that modern Thai dogs may be descendants of golden jackals. A random
sample of 16 animals was collected from each of the two populations. The length (in
millimeters) of the mandible (jawbone) was measured for each animal. The lower quartile,
median, and upper quartile for each sample are shown in the table below, along with all values
below the lower quartile and all values above the upper quartile.
a. Display parallel boxplots of mandible lengths (showing outliers, if any) for the modern
Thai dogs and the golden jackals on the grid below.
Based on the boxplots, write a few sentences comparing the distributions of mandible
lengths for the two types of dogs.
b. Is it reasonable to use the sample of mandible lengths of modern Thai dogs to construct
an interval estimate of the mean mandible length for the population of modern Thai
dogs? Justify your answer. (Note: You do not have to compute the interval.)
c. Is it reasonable to use the sample data of mandible lengths of modern Thai dogs and the
sample data of mandible lengths of golden jackals to perform a two-sample t-test for the
difference in mean mandible lengths for the two types of dogs? Justify your answer.
(Note: You do not have to conduct the test.)
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
Please respond on separate paper, following directions from your teacher.
2. A school is having a contest in which students guess the number of candies in a jar. The student
whose guess is closest to the correct number of candies in the jar wins a prize. The number of
candies guessed by male and female students is shown in the back-to-back stemplot below.
Which of the following statements is true about the distributions of guesses?
The distribution of guesses for male students is skewed to the left, and the distribution of guesses
A
for female students is skewed to the right.
The distribution of guesses for male students is skewed to the right, and the distribution of guesses
B
for female students is skewed to the left.
C The distributions of guesses for male and female students are both skewed to the right.
D The distributions of guesses for male and female students are both skewed to the left.
E The distributions of guesses for male and female students are both symmetric.
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
3. A local real estate magazine used the median instead of the mean when it reported the SAT score
of the average student who attends Groveland High School. A graphical display of SAT scores of
students who attend Groveland High School indicated that the data were strongly skewed to the
right. Which of the following explains why, in this situation, the median is a more accurate indicator
of the SAT score of the average student than the mean is?
A The mean is affected by the skewness, whereas the median is not.
B The median is always the preferred statistic.
C The mean will be less than the median when the data are strongly skewed to the right.
D The mean should be used only when data are strongly skewed to the left.
The median is equal to one-half the sum of the maximum and minimum SAT scores at Groveland
E
High.
4. A graph (not shown) of the selling prices of homes in a certain city for the month of April reveals
that the distribution is skewed to the left. Which of the following statements is the most reasonable
conclusion about the selling prices based on the graph?
A The mean is greater than the median.
B The median is the average of the first quartile and the third quartile.
There are fewer selling prices between the first quartile and the median than there are between the
C
median and the third quartile.
There are more selling prices that are less than the mean than selling prices that are greater than
D
the mean.
E The value of maximum minus third quartile is less than the value of first quartile minus minimum.
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
5. Administrators at a state university computed the mean GPA (grade point average) for juniors and
seniors majoring in either physics or chemistry. The results are displayed in the table below. When
juniors and seniors are grouped together, could physics majors have a higher mean GPA than
chemistry majors?
No. The physics majors’ mean GPA for juniors and seniors must be 3.0, while the chemistry
A
majors’ mean GPA for juniors and seniors must be 3.3.
No. There is not enough information to determine the mean GPA for each major, but it must be
B
higher for chemistry majors than for physics majors.
Yes. It could happen. Whether it does happen depends on the number of juniors and seniors in
C
each major.
Yes. It could happen. Whether it does happen depends on the variability of the GPAs within each
D
of the four groups of students.
Yes. It could happen. Whether it does happen depends on the shapes of the distributions of the
E
GPAs for each of the four groups of students.
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
6. An amusement park attraction has a sign that indicates that a person must be at least 48 inches tall
to ride the attraction. The following boxplot shows the heights of a sample of people who entered
the amusement park on one day.
Based on the boxplot, approximately what percent of the people who entered the amusement park
met the height requirement for the attraction?
A 25%
B 48%
C 50%
D 75%
E 100%
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
7. A marketing firm obtained random samples of 20 people in five regions of the country to investigate
the level of interest in a new product. People in the sample were asked to rate their level of interest
on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the least amount of interest and 10 being the greatest. The
histograms show the results for each region. The graph for which region displays data for level of
interest with the least standard deviation?
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
8. A candy company produces individually wrapped candies. The quality control manager for the
company believes that the weight of the candies is approximately normally distributed with mean
720 milligrams (mg).If the manager’s belief is correct, which of the following intervals of weights will
contain the largest proportion of the candies in the distribution of weights?
A 740 mg to 780 mg
B 700 mg to 740 mg
C 680 mg to 720 mg
D 660 mg to 700 mg
E 620 mg to 660 mg
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
9. One way to measure the duration of subterranean disturbances such as earthquakes and mining is
to calculate the root-mean-square time. The following histograms summarize the distributions of
the root-mean-square times for two sources of disturbances.
Based on the histograms, which of the following correctly compares the two distributions?
A The median of the earthquake disturbances is equal to the median of the mining disturbances.
B The median of the earthquake disturbances is less than the median of the mining disturbances.
C The range of the earthquake disturbances is equal to the range of the mining disturbances.
D The range of the earthquake disturbances is less than the range of the mining disturbances.
E The mode of the earthquake disturbances is equal to the mode of the mining disturbances.
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
10. The following bar chart shows the relative frequency of days of rain for 30 days in four regions of a
certain state.
Which of the following statements is not supported by the bar chart?
A Region D had the greatest percentage of days of rain.
B Region B had the least percentage of days of rain.
C Region A had more than 15 days of rain.
D Region C had more than 25 days of rain.
E Region D had less than 23 days of rain.
11. Directions: Show all your work. Indicate clearly the methods you use, because you will be
scored on the correctness of your methods as well as on the accuracy and completeness of
your results and explanations.
Two large corporations, A and B, hire many new college graduates as accountants at entry-
level positions. In 2009 the starting salary for an entry-level accountant position was $36,000 a
year at both corporations. At each corporation, data were collected from 30 employees who
were hired in 2009 as entry-level accountants and were still employed at the corporation five
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
years later. The yearly salaries of the 60 employees in 2014 are summarized in the boxplots
below.
a. Write a few sentences comparing the distributions of the yearly salaries at the two
corporations.
b. Suppose both corporations offered you a job for $36,000 a year as an entry-level
accountant.
i. Based on the boxplots, give one reason why you might choose to accept the job at
corporation A.
ii. Based on the boxplots, give one reason why you might choose to accept the job at
corporation B.
Please respond on separate paper, following directions from your teacher.
12. A company determines the mean and standard deviation of the number of sick days taken by its
employees in one year. Which of the following is the best description of the standard deviation?
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AP Statistics Test Booklet
AP Statistics Unit 1 Test
Approximately the mean distance between the number of sick days taken by individual employees
A
and the mean number of sick days taken by all employees
Approximately the median distance between the number of sick days taken by individual
B
employees and the median number of sick days taken by all employees
The distance between the greatest number of sick days taken by an employee and the mean
C
number of sick days taken by all employees
The number of days separating the fewest sick days taken and the most sick days taken when
D
considering all employees
The number of days separating the fewest sick days taken and the most sick days taken when
E
considering the middle 50 percent of the distribution
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