STA413f11: More About the Final Exam

The final exam is on Saturday Dec. 10th from 4-7 pm, in IB110. It is closed book and closed notes. Be sure to bring need a calculator. The Final version of the formula sheet will be supplied. 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

• Tuesday Dec 6th (Jerry): 11am-1pm
• Thursday Dec. 8th (Jerry): To be announced
• Friday Dec. 9th (Ramya): 3:30-4:30

When studying for the exam,

• Disregard Assignment 1.
• There will be no probability calculations using the Central Limit Theorem (the ones where you are approximating the probability that the sum is something, and the answers are numbers). There were several of these in Assignments 4 and 5. On the other hand, confidence intervals, tests and power calculations using the Central Limit Theorem are definitely possiblle.
• Question 1 on Assignment 8 is out.
• In textbook problems 6.2.7 and 6.2.8 (and elsewhere if I've missed it), don't worry about stating the asymptotic distribution.
• Don't bother with textbook problems 6.3.5 and 6.3.10.

Last little bit of homework: In the text, do 11.2.2. For 11.2.4, find the posterior distribution. We did not get to loss functions, but the problem is asking for the posterior mean, so please find that too. Please do 11.3.2 (a) and (b). In (b), they are asking for the posterior expected value again.

Office hour will be announced.

Additional comments and suggestions

• The words "show" or "prove" or "derive" mean show all the details. But "Give" or "Write down" means just give the answer. How much work you show is up to you, but you can't get part marks if the answer is wrong and you don't show any work.
• In general, you may use anything you like from the formula sheet unless you are being asked to prove it. But for example, if the question says to use the definition, then use the definition. If you use other material from the formula sheet instead, you will be lucky to get any marks at all. Using other material in addition to the definition is fine.
• Most of the exam questions are very like the homework, but please read each question carefully before you start answering it. In my opinion, there is no value in memorizing the answers to homework questions. So if you see that an exam question is generally similar to something you remember from homework, great! You should know how to do it. But if you just dump the contents of your memory onto the exam paper and the question is not exactly the same as the one you remember from homework, the most likely mark is zero. Answer the question that is being asked now, not the one that was asked in the past.