POLI 300                                           GUIDE TO FINAL EXAM                                        FALL 2007

            The Final Exam is scheduled for Wednesday, December 19, 1:00-3:00 PM, in PUP 208. Please see me in advance if this time presents a real problem for you. Problem Set #12B may be turned in any time through Thursday, December 20, 5:00 PM (end of the final exam period).

            The final exam will be comprehensive in nature and will be in a quite different format from the two mid-term tests. You will be presented with about 24 pairs (in a few cases, triples) of related terms and concepts. All such terms and concepts will be drawn from the list below. You will be asked to write on 20 of these pairs (or triples); for each item you select, you will be asked to define and discuss each of the two (or three) terms or concepts briefly and, in particular, to make clear the nature and significance of the distinction that is to be drawn between them. These obviously will not be long essays. One solid paragraph, clearly and concisely written, will be adequate for full credit; you should say the most important things and say them as precisely as possible. Illustrative examples may be helpful in some cases. The suggested time for each item will be six minutes (times 20 items = 120 minutes). Each answer will be evaluated for completeness and accuracy on a scale from 0 to 6. The items in the list below certainly are not of equal generality or importance, and the more general or important ones are more likely to appear as items on the test. But some items below that do not appear as questions on the test may nevertheless be appropriately used in (good) answers.

            Course grades (A, B, C, D, F) only will be available from the Registrar (through myUMBC) on January 4 or thereabouts. However, I will post grades for the final exam, as well as more precise course grades, once they are ready (hopefully before New Years Day) on the course website for students who explicitly ask me to do this by checking a box on the final exam. (If you request this, your grade will be identified by the five digits of your Campus ID Number. Grades will be listed by numerical ID order, not by alphabetical order of last names, in order to preserve maximum anonymity.)

survey research

commercial pre-election polls

American National Election Studies

panel survey

pooled cross-section

non-random sampling

convenience sampling

self-selected samples

interviewer selected samples

quota sampling

random sampling

sample

population

sampling fraction

sampling frame

simple random sample (SRS)

sampling error

inverse square root law (of sampling error)

margin of error

95%-confidence interval

sample statistic

multistage sample

stratified sample

clustered sample

non-sampling error

response/completion rate

closed-form question

open-ended question

self-administered (mail) survey

telephone survey

personal (face-to-face) interviewing

variables

values

unit of analysis

nominal variable

ordinal variable

interval variable

ratio variable

coding

recoding variables

operationalization

indicator (or proxy)

index 

accuracy of measurement

precision of measurement

reliability of measurement

bias of measurement

validity of measurement

observed values

raw data/data array/data spreadsheet

missing data

univariate analysis

frequency distribution

absolute frequency

relative frequency

adjusted relative frequency (valid percent)

cumulative frequency

frequency bar graph

class interval

histogram

continuous density curve

skewed vs. symmetric distribution

central tendency

mode

median

mean

deviations from mean

percentile

dispersion/variability/spread

(simple or total) range

interquartile range

mean deviation

variance

standard deviation

standard score

normal distribution

68-95-99.7% rule

bivariate analysis

measures of association

positive association

negative association

independent variable

dependent variable

crosstabulation

marginal frequencies

expected frequencies

column percentages

row percentages

total percentages

recovering case counts

“dangling” percentages

scattergram

“vertical strips” in scattergrams

least squares criterion

regression coefficient (slope) [b]

correlation coefficient [r]

regression constant (y-intercept) [a]

regression equation [ŷ = a + bx]

linear vs. curvilinear relationship

univariate outlier

bivariate outlier