Test-taking strategies

As you know, this program asks you to complete graded assessments at the end of each module and course. Assessments can sometimes feel overwhelming, but approaching them with a strategy can make them more manageable. Here is a list of tips you can use to prime yourself for success.

Before taking an assessment:

• Review your notes, the videos, the readings, and the most recent glossary to refresh yourself on the content.
• Find a picture of something or an object that makes you feel happy. For example, you might look at a photograph of a beautiful beach or a peaceful forest when you feel overwhelmed.

During the assessment:

• Review the test before filling in answers. Remember to check your work before you click submit.
• Take your time. You are given a full five minutes per question on all graded assessments.
• Answer the easy questions first; skip the ones you don’t know the answer to right away.
• For multiple choice questions, focus on eliminating the wrong answers first.
• Read each question twice. There are often clues that are easy to miss the first time.
• Remember to slow down and trust your knowledge. You probably know more than you give yourself credit for.
• Take a deep breath and give yourself positive feedback.
• Take some time during the assessment to rest for a few seconds, stretch, and shake out your hands. This can really help calm your nerves.

If you start to feel anxious:

• Spell your name backwards or do an easy math problem. This brings you back to the frontal lobe of your brain, which helps you recall information more easily.
• Focus on calm, steady breathing.
• Visualize success.

Before you submit the assessment:

Check your work, but be confident. Sometimes people change correct answers because they feel wrong, but they’re actually right. Your first instinct is usually correct.

Course challenge

1st

Scenario 1, question 1-5

Question 1

You’ve just started a new job as a data analyst. You’re working for a midsized pharmacy chain with 38 stores in the American Southwest. Your supervisor shares a new data analysis project with you.

She explains that the pharmacy is considering discontinuing a bubble bath product called Splashtastic. Your supervisor wants you to analyze sales data and determine what percentage of each store’s total daily sales come from that product. Then, you’ll present your findings to leadership.

You know that it's important to follow each step of the data analysis process: ask, prepare, process, analyze, share, and act. So, you begin by defining the problem and making sure you fully understand stakeholder expectations.

One of the questions you ask is where to find the dataset you’ll be working with. Your supervisor explains that the company database has all the information you need.

Next, you continue to the prepare step. You access the database and write a query to retrieve data about Splashtastic. You notice that there are only 38 rows of data, representing the company’s 38 stores. In addition, your dataset contains five columns: Store Number, Average Daily Customers, Average Daily Splashtastic Sales (Units), Average Daily Splashtastic Sales (Dollars), and Average Total Daily Sales (All Products).

Considering the size of your dataset, you decide a spreadsheet will be the best tool for your project. You proceed by downloading the data from the database. Describe why this is the best choice.

A. Only spreadsheets let you download and upload data.

B. Spreadsheets work well for processing and analyzing a small dataset, like the one you're using.

C. Spreadsheets are most effective when working with queries

D. Databases can't be used for analysis.

The correct answer is B. Spreadsheets work well for processing and analyzing a small dataset, like the one you're using.

Question 2

You’ve downloaded the data from your company database and imported it into a spreadsheet. To use the dataset for this scenario, click the link below and select “Use Template.”

Link to template: Course Challenge - Scenario 1

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the template directly from the attachment below.

Now, it’s time to process the data. As you know, this step involves finding and eliminating errors and inaccuracies that can get in the way of your results. While cleaning the data, you notice that information about Splashtastic is missing in row 16. Which of the following would be an appropriate course of action?

A. Investigate previous projects and see how this was dealt with there.

B. Delete the row with the missing data point.

C. Sort the spreadsheet so the row with missing data is at the bottom.

D. Replace the row with the average values of the other data points.

It is false answer.

Question 3

Once you’ve found the missing information, you analyze your dataset.

During analysis, you create a new column F. At the top of the column, you add: Average Percentage of Total Sales - Splashtastic. What is this column label called?

A. A headline

B. A title

C. An attribute

D. A reference

The correct answer is C. An attribute

Question 4

Next, you determine the average total daily sales over the past 12 months at all stores. The range that contains these sales is E2:E39. To do this, you use a function. You input =AVE(E2:E39), but this returns an error. What is the correct command?

A. =AVERAGE(E2,E29)

B. =AVERAGE(E2:E39)

C. =AVERAGE(E2-E39)

D. =AVERAGE(E2+E39)

The correct command is =AVERAGE(E2:E39)

Question 5

Next, you create a slideshow, which includes a data visualization to highlight the Splashtastic sales insights you've discovered. You’ve reached which phase of the data analysis process?

A. Analyze

B. Share

C. Manage

D. Act

The correct answer is B. Share

Scenario 2, questions 6-10

Question 6

You’ve been working for the nonprofit National Dental Society (NDS) as a junior data analyst for about two months. The mission of the NDS is to help its members advance the oral health of their patients. NDS members include dentists, hygienists, and dental office support staff.

The NDS is passionate about patient health. Part of this involves automatically scheduling follow-up appointments after crown replacement, emergency dental surgery, and extraction procedures. NDS believes the follow-up is an important step to ensure patient recovery and minimize infection.

Unfortunately, many patients don’t show up for these appointments, so the NDS wants to create a campaign to help its members learn how to encourage their patients to take follow-up appointments seriously. If successful, this will help the NDS achieve its mission of advancing the oral health of all patients.

Your supervisor has just sent you an email saying that you’re doing very well on the team, and he wants to give you some additional responsibility. He describes the issue of many missed follow-up appointments. You are tasked with analyzing data about this problem and presenting your findings using data visualizations.

An NDS member with three dental offices in Colorado offers to share its data on missed appointments. So, your supervisor uses a database query to access the dataset from the dental group. The query instructs the database to retrieve all patient information from the member’s three dental offices, located in zip code 81137.

The table is dental_data_table, and the column name is zip_code. The following query is incomplete.

SELECT *
FROM dental_data_table

Which of the following is the missing third line from this query?

A. zip_code = 81137

B. WHERE = 81137

C. WHERE_zip_code = 81137

D. WHERE zip_code = 81137

The missing third line from this query is WHERE zip_code = 81137.

Question 7

The dataset your supervisor retrieved and imported into a spreadsheet includes a list of patients, their demographic information, dental procedure types, and whether they attended their follow-up appointment. To use the dataset for this scenario, click the link below and select “Use Template.”

Course Challenge - Scenario 2

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the template directly from the attachment below.

The patient demographic information includes data such as age, gender, and home address. The fact that the dataset includes people who all live in the same zip code might get in the way of what?

A. Fairness

B. Spreadsheet formulas or functions

C. Future dental procedures

D. Data visualization

The correct answer is A. Fairness

Question 8

As you’re reviewing the dataset, you notice that there are a disproportionate number of senior citizens. So, you investigate further and find out that this zip code represents a rural community in Colorado with about 800 residents. In addition, there’s a large assisted-living facility in the area. Nearly 300 of the residents in the 81137 zip code live in the facility.

You recognize that’s a sizable number, so you want to find out if age has an effect on a patient’s likelihood to attend a follow-up dental appointment. You analyze the data, and your analysis reveals that older people tend to miss follow-ups more than younger people.

So, you do some research online and discover that people over the age 60 are 50% more likely to miss dentist appointments. Sometimes this is because they’re on a fixed income. Also, many senior citizens lack transportation to get to and from appointments.

With this new knowledge, you write an email to your supervisor expressing your concerns about the dataset. He agrees with your concerns, but he’s also impressed with what you’ve learned and thinks your findings could be very important to the project. He asks you to change the business task. Now, the NDS campaign will be about educating dental offices on the challenges faced by senior citizens and finding ways to help them access quality dental care.

The business task has changed. What is the nature of that change?

A. Conducting a gap analysis

B. Using a database instead of a spreadsheet

C. Defining the new question or problem to be solved

D. Creating a graphical representation of the data

The correct answer is C. Defining the new question or problem to be solved

Question 9

You continue with your analysis. In the end, your findings support what you discovered during your online research: As people get older, they’re less likely to attend follow-up dental visits.

But you’re not done yet. You know that data should be combined with human insights in order to lead to true data-driven decision-making. So, your next step is to share this information with people who are familiar with the problem professionally. They’ll help verify the results of your data analysis.

Fill in the blank: The people who are familiar with a problem and help verify the results of data analysis are _____.

A. data scientists

B. stakeholders

C. subject-matter experts

D. customers

The people who are familiar with a problem and help verify the results of data analysis are subject-matter experts.

Question 10

The subject-matter experts are impressed by your analysis. The team agrees to move to the next step: data visualization. You know it’s important that stakeholders at NDS can quickly and easily understand that older people are less likely to attend important follow-up dental appointments. This will help them create an effective campaign for members.

It’s time to create your presentation to stakeholders. It will include a data visualization that depicts the relationship between age and follow-up dental appointment attendance rates over a lifetime.

A doughnut chart will be the most effective visualization of this data. True or False?

A. True

B. False

It is false statement

2nd

Scenario 1, question 1-5

Question 1

You’ve just started a new job as a data analyst. You’re working for a midsized pharmacy chain with 38 stores in the American Southwest. Your supervisor shares a new data analysis project with you.

She explains that the pharmacy is considering discontinuing a bubble bath product called Splashtastic. Your supervisor wants you to analyze sales data and determine what percentage of each store’s total daily sales come from that product. Then, you’ll present your findings to leadership.

You know that it's important to follow each step of the data analysis process: ask, prepare, process, analyze, share, and act. So, you begin by defining the problem and making sure you fully understand stakeholder expectations.

One of the questions you ask is where to find the dataset you’ll be working with. Your supervisor explains that the company database has all the information you need.

Next, you continue to the prepare step. You access the database and write a query to retrieve data about Splashtastic. You notice that there are only 38 rows of data, representing the company’s 38 stores. In addition, your dataset contains five columns: Store Number, Average Daily Customers, Average Daily Splashtastic Sales (Units), Average Daily Splashtastic Sales (Dollars), and Average Total Daily Sales (All Products).

Considering the size of your dataset, you decide a spreadsheet will be the best tool for your project. You proceed by downloading the data from the database. Describe why this is the best choice.

A. Only spreadsheets let you download and upload data.

B. Spreadsheets are most effective when working with queries

C. Spreadsheets work well for processing and analyzing a small dataset, like the one you're using.

D. Databases can't be used for analysis.

The correct answer is C. Spreadsheets work well for processing and analyzing a small dataset, like the one you're using.

Question 2

You’ve downloaded the data from your company database and imported it into a spreadsheet. To use the dataset for this scenario, click the link below and select “Use Template.”

Link to template: Course Challenge - Scenario 1

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the template directly from the attachment below.

Now, it’s time to process the data. As you know, this step involves finding and eliminating errors and inaccuracies that can get in the way of your results. While cleaning the data, you notice that information about Splashtastic is missing in row 16. The best course of action is to delete the row with missing data from your dataset so it doesn’t get in the way of your results. True or False?

A. True

B. False

It is true statement.

Question 3

Once you’ve found the missing information, you analyze your dataset. During analysis, you create a new column F. You label the top of the column Average Percentage of Total Sales - Splashtastic.

**Fill in the blank: The column label you add to column F is known as ______. **

A. a title

B. an attribute

C. an observation

D. a reference

The column label you add to column F is known as an attribute.

Question 4

Next, you determine the average total daily sales over the past 12 months at all stores. The range that contains these sales is E2:E39. To do this, you use a function. Fill in the blank to complete the function correctly: =AVERAGE_____.

A. (E2:E39)

B. E2:E39

C. E2-E39

D. (E2-E39)

=AVERAGE(E2:E39)

Question 5

You’ve reached the share phase of the data analysis process. What can you do in this phase to highlight the Splashtastic sales insights you've discovered?

A. Compile a record of the data.

B. Create a data visualization.

C. Revisit the analyze phase.

D. Establish a repository for the data.

The correct answer is B. Create a data visualization.

Scenario 2, question 6-10

Question 6

You’ve been working for the nonprofit National Dental Society (NDS) as a junior data analyst for about two months. The mission of the NDS is to help its members advance the oral health of their patients. NDS members include dentists, hygienists, and dental office support staff.

The NDS is passionate about patient health. Part of this involves automatically scheduling follow-up appointments after crown replacement, emergency dental surgery, and extraction procedures. NDS believes the follow-up is an important step to ensure patient recovery and minimize infection.

Unfortunately, many patients don’t show up for these appointments, so the NDS wants to create a campaign to help its members learn how to encourage their patients to take follow-up appointments seriously. If successful, this will help the NDS achieve its mission of advancing the oral health of all patients.

Your supervisor has just sent you an email saying that you’re doing very well on the team, and he wants to give you some additional responsibility. He describes the issue of many missed follow-up appointments. You are tasked with analyzing data about this problem and presenting your findings using data visualizations.

An NDS member with three dental offices in Colorado offers to share its data on missed appointments. So, your supervisor uses a database query to access the dataset from the dental group. The query instructs the database to retrieve all patient information from the member’s three dental offices, located in zip code 81137.

The table is dental_data_table, and the column name is zip_code. You write the following query.

SELECT *
FROM dental_data_table
WHERE zip code = 81137

This query is incorrect. How could it be fixed?

A. Decapitalize SELECT, FROM, and WHERE

B. Rewrite line 3 as zip_code = 81137

C. Rewrite line 3 as WHERE_zip code = 81137

D. In line 3, replace zip code with zip_code

The correct answer is D. In line 3, replace zip code with zip_code

SELECT *
FROM dental_data_table
WHERE zip_code = 81137

Question 7

The dataset your supervisor retrieved and imported into a spreadsheet includes a list of patients, their demographic information, dental procedure types, and whether they attended their follow-up appointment. To use the dataset for this scenario, click the link below and select “Use Template.”

Course Challenge - Scenario 2

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the template directly from the attachment below.

The patient demographic information includes data such as age, gender, and home address. When examining the geographic data, you notice that all the patients live in the same zip code.

Fill in the blank: The fact that the dataset includes people who all live in the same zip code might get in the way of ______.

A. accuracy

B. data visualization

C. spreadsheet formulas or functions

D. fairness

The fact that the dataset includes people who all live in the same zip code might get in the way of fairness

Question 8

As you’re reviewing the dataset, you notice that there are a disproportionate number of senior citizens. So, you investigate further and find out that this zip code represents a rural community in Colorado with about 800 residents. In addition, there’s a large assisted-living facility in the area. Nearly 300 of the residents in the 81137 zip code live in the facility.

You recognize that’s a sizable number, so you want to find out if age has an effect on a patient’s likelihood to attend a follow-up dental appointment. You analyze the data, and your analysis reveals that older people tend to miss follow-ups more than younger people.

So, you do some research online and discover that people over the age 60 are 50% more likely to miss dentist appointments. Sometimes this is because they’re on a fixed income. Also, many senior citizens lack transportation to get to and from appointments.

With this new knowledge, you write an email to your supervisor expressing your concerns about the dataset. He agrees with your concerns, but he’s also impressed with what you’ve learned and thinks your findings could be very important to the project. He asks you to change the business task. Now, the NDS campaign will be about educating dental offices on the challenges faced by senior citizens and finding ways to help them access quality dental care.

Changing the business task involves which of the following?

A. Conducting a gap analysis

B. Using a database instead of a spreadsheet

C. Creating a graphical representation of the data

D. Defining the new question or problem to be solved

The correct answer is D. Defining the new question or problem to be solved

Question 9

You continue with your analysis. In the end, your findings support what you discovered during your online research: As people get older, they’re less likely to attend follow-up dental visits.

But you’re not done yet. You know that data should be combined with human insights in order to lead to true data-driven decision-making. So, your next step is to share this information with people who are familiar with the problem professionally. They’ll help verify the results of your data analysis.

The people who are familiar with a problem professionally and help verify the results of data analysis include customers and competitors. True or False?

A. True

B. False

It is false statement.

Question 10

The subject-matter experts are impressed by your analysis. The team agrees to move to the next step: data visualization. You know it’s important that stakeholders at NDS can quickly and easily understand that older people are less likely to attend important follow-up dental appointments than younger people. This will help them create an effective campaign for members.

It’s time to create your presentation to stakeholders. It will include a data visualization that demonstrates the lifetime trend of people being less likely to attend follow-up appointments as they get older.

For this, a pie chart will be most effective. True or False?

A. True

B. False

It is false statement