Evaluating statistical claims

강의 소개

Evaluating statistical claims on the SAT: observational studies versus experiments, when a cause-and-effect conclusion is allowed (random assignment), when a result generalizes (random selection), confounding variables, and comparing the results of two groups.

On the Digital SAT, evaluating statistical claims is a Problem-Solving and Data Analysis skill that usually appears as a short description of a study followed by the question of which conclusion the data support. The study may be a survey, an experiment with volunteers or research on a randomly selected sample; sometimes results for two groups are given to compare.

Wrong answers usually sound reasonable because they claim more than the data show: a causal conclusion from a survey, a volunteer result stretched to everyone, or a comparison of head counts instead of rates. This lesson reduces every question to two checks, whether there was random assignment and where the sample was randomly drawn from, with a decision table for eliminating choices in seconds. It ends with 6 self-graded practice questions, each with a full explanation.