STA313f04: About the Final Exam

New Information

I have finished making up the final exam. The first several versions were too long. Now it is okay, I hope. In the course of making it shorter, I cut out the computer question. So please be aware that there will be no computer output on the final. You will not need a calculator.

Another question that was eliminated was a big long monster in which you would have been given a path model, and asked to express it in LISREL notation. The second part of Question 7 in the Final Assignment (express all the path models in LISREL notaion) was practice for this question, but the question is gone. Now you can save a lot of time. For Question 7, just say whether each model is identified or not. Don't give yourself a headache trying to fit the models into the LISREL framework.

The exam will start out with some questions like the ones in Question 7 of the Final Assignment. They are not all pictures, though. Some are sets of equations. You will be asked whether each model is identified, and the answers can be fast. They are worth a lot of marks (4 points each), but the answers can be just a few words. Note that if you say correctly whether a model is identified or not without giving a correct reason on one of these quick questions, you will not get any partial credit.

I have been persuaded to give answers for Question 7. I hope these are the same answers we got in Office hours Tuesday.

  1. Yes
  2. No
  4. No
  5. No
  6. Yes
  7. No
  8. Yes (Compare Question 4)
  9. Yes, but it's probably too long for the exam.
  10. Yes
  11. Yes
  12. Yes
  13. No
  14. Yes
  16. No
  18. Yes
  19. Yes
  20. Yes

Quiz 6 is marked. Here are the quiz marks for all 6 quizzes. If your records and mine do not agree, please come see me in office hours this week.

And, if your mark on Quiz 6 is low, your really need to come and get things straightened out before you take the final exam. Quiz 6 was about model identification, and a LOT of the final is about model identification. If you come in with a serious misconception (like, for example, that the model is identified if p(p+1)/2 > k), then you will fail the final exam and quite possibly fail the course.

In fact, anybody who got less than 10/10 on Quiz 6 can benefit from picking up the quiz and finding out what happened to the missing points.

Here's something for everybody to think about. In Question 3 of Quiz 6 (the one with e1+e2), it is instructive to consider why the null-beta rule does not apply. The null-beta rule is stated exactly in Question 2 of the final assignment; take a look!

Yes, there is a lot of model identification on the final exam. This is not as unbalanced as it seems, because nearly everything we have done in the course (except for likelihood functions and likelihood ratio tests, which are covered adequately) is needed for you to determine model identification.

Old stuff

The final exam is on Friday Dec. 17 from 2-5 pm, in NE143 (North Building). It is closed book and closed notes. You will not need a calculator. A formula sheet will be supplied. There is a new version of the Formula sheet. Please download it and use it while preparing for the exam. If you find errors or omissions, please let me know as soon as possible.

Office hours during the week of the exam.

There is a Final Assignment. It covers material between Assignment 6 and the end of the term. As usual, the questions are just for practice, and are not to be handed in.

Here are some specific hints and suggestions.