Week 8 — Midterm Review & Exam

Welcome to your Week 8 Start Here page.

Why this matters

Knowing where a number stands is how a nurse reads a lab value against a healthy range and how a coach compares one sprinter's time with the team. This week ties that question to everything so far.

In plain language

This week you look back at the whole first half of the course. It comes down to four questions about any set of numbers: where they came from, what they look like, whether two of them move together, and how likely an outcome is. You also learn one new tool, the z-score (a count of how many standard deviations a value sits above or below the average of its group). It tells you whether a value is ordinary or unusual for its group, which is called relative standing (where one value sits compared with the rest of its group).

• Already covered: describing one variable, relating two, and reasoning about chance (Weeks 1 to 7).
• This week: a four-question review, the z-score, and the midterm.
• How they connect: a z-score combines Week 3's mean and standard deviation.
• Where we're going next: Week 9, The Normal Distribution, starts from the z-score.

Focus

Where did the numbers come from, what do they look like, do they move together, and how likely is an outcome? Then: how unusual is one value for its group?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] answer the four review questions with the course's penguin, dice, and quiz numbers
• [ ] compute a z-score and say it in standard deviations above or below the mean
• [ ] compare values from different groups by their z-scores

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 8 (about 35 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Do the practice set (about 20 minutes) and the discussion (about 45 minutes).
3. Use the study guide and practice exam, then take the midterm.

This week's checkpoint: find the z-score of a 4,000 g Gentoo and say why it differs from a 4,000 g Adelie's.

You've got this

You have done this work before. Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if a step snags.

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