AP Statistics : How to conduct a census

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Statistics

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : How To Conduct A Census

Kate would like to determine what flavors of ice cream are most popular among students in her AP Statistics class. In total, there are 100 students in the class. Which of the following would be an appropriate sampling methodology? 

Possible Answers:

Ask every fifth person that walks through the door what their favorite flavor of ice cream is before class starts

Randomly select several of the most popular students in the class to answer questions about their favorite ice cream flavor

Obtain a census of the class and survey each person in the class to determine their favorite flavor of ice cream

There is no effective way to obtain a representative sample from the target population 

Group students into several homogeneous groups and choose one group to survey in order to determine the class's favorite ice cream flavor

Correct answer:

Obtain a census of the class and survey each person in the class to determine their favorite flavor of ice cream

Explanation:

In this situation, it is best to conduct a census in order to determine what the class's favorite flavor of ice cream is. Since there are only 100 students in the class, a sample of the class would be very small and may not be representative of the class as a whole. 

Example Question #1 : How To Conduct A Census

Census is to __________ as survey is to __________.

Possible Answers:

sample; population

cluster; stratum

There are no similarities between these two.

population; group

population; sample

Correct answer:

population; sample

Explanation:

A census gathers data from an entire population of people. A survey targets a representative sample of a population.

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