Requirements for Statistics
Maura Mezzetti
The ideal student should have followed a basic course of statistics, the following two links can be
used as an example of ideal basic course of statistics:
https://economia.uniroma2.it/ba/business-administration-economics/corso/1084/
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/calendar/courseGuides/ST/2017_ST102.htm
Two suggested books for a basic course of statistics are the following:
1) P. Newbold, W.L. Carlson and B.M. Thorne (2012) Statistics for Business and Economics.
Pearson
2) A. Mood, F. Graybill and D. Boes (1974) Introduction to the theory of statistics, McGraw-Hill
(even if is an older textbook, but does a good job explaining motivations).
Students should be comfortable with algebra (including the connection between logarithms and
exponents), basic calculus (derivatives and integration), basic concepts of probability and statistics
(e.g. descriptive statistics, probability and sample spaces, independence, random variables:
univariate and multivariate, Gaussian distribution, basic concept of estimation).
Example of exercises required:
1. What is the solution of the following integral
4
2
2
1dx
x
a) .25
b) 2
c) 0.5
d) -0.25
e) 1
2. a is an integer chosen at random from the set {1, 3, 5, 7} b is chosen at random from the set
{2, 4, 6, 8}, what is the probability a+b=9?
a) 0.1
b) 0.2
c) 0.25
d) 0.3
e) 0.4
3. The quartile for data collected on the amount, in euros, individual customers spent in ice-creams
in a summer month are the following:
Q1=2€ Q2=10.50€ Q3=15€
Which of the following statement is true?
a) Most of the customer spend 10.50€ in ice-creams in a month
b) The mean amount spent in ice-creams in a month is 10.50€
c) 75% of the customer spend between 2€ and 15€ in ice-creams in a month
d) At least half of the customers spend less than or equal to 10.50€ and at least half
spend more than or equal to 10.50€
4. Given IQ scores are approximately normally distributed with a mean of 100 and standard
deviation of 15, the proportion of people with IQs above 130 is approximately:
a) 95%
b) 68%
c) 5%
d) 2.5%
