18 Practice exam items
Practice for Exam 2
Exam 2 will cover content from Chapters 1 through 8, but will focus on content from Chapter 5 through 8.
Exam 1 items 12, 29, 32, 34, 36, 37, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55, 62, and 69 were among the top ten most missed items in POL 138-005 and/or POL 138-006 and, along with items about p-values and linear regression, are good candidates for the review section of Exam 2.
Practice for Exam 3
Exam 3 will cover content from Chapters 1 through 12, but will focus on content from Chapter 9 through 12. Exam 2 items 15, 16, 21, 26, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 46 were among the top ten most missed items in POL 138-005 and/or POL 138-006 and, along with items about p-values and linear regression, are good candidates for the review section of Exam 2.
Practice for Exam 4
Exam 4 is a writing exam that covers Chapters 1 through 12.
Main eligible content for Exam 4:
Ability to explain why one research design is better than another research design
Ability to predict how a particular type of selection bias can bias an inference
Ability to propose an alternate explanation for a pattern
Ability to write the definition of a p-value, including all three key parts
Understanding of factors that can cause a null result that fails to detect a true effect
Understanding of how a difference-in-differences design can better help infer causality than a mere over-time difference can
Understanding of how comparison of cases just below and just above a threshold can help infer causality
Understanding of how statistical control can help infer causality
Understanding of how, for inferring causality, comparisons should try to hold constant as much as possible
Understanding of the benefit of weighting studies by sample size, for calculating an average effect size across studies
Understanding of the type of randomization that is needed for a randomized experiment and how that randomization can help identify the effect of a treatment
Understanding that a p-value of p<0.05 does not necessarily indicate a causal association