Application Exam Prep Sheet

The Application Exam will be given in Blackboard on Tuesday April 20 at 4 PM L.A. time unless otherwise
arranged, for example, for students in a time zone where 4:00 PM in L.A. is not between 7:00 AM and
10:00 PM student’s local time. If you are in a time zone where the local time when the exam is
administered is outside the interval between 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM and you would like to take the exam
later that day, you need to let Jasleen and me know no later than April 16th. Please provide your class
schedule for Tuesday April 20th and the time zone you are in with your request. Otherwise, I will assume
you are taking the exam with the rest of the class.

The exam will be open book subject to the following ground rules:

You will be required to join the Zoom meeting for the day and time of the exam.

You are required to be on Zoom with your camera on the entire time of the exam. You are NOT to use a
virtual background.

The exam will start promptly on the hour and be 70 minutes long. Plan to arrive on time (better, a few
minutes early) so that you are logged into Blackboard on the hour and can make use of the entire 70
minutes allowed. Students registered with DSP who have an accommodation such as extra time will be
granted that accommodation.

You are allowed to use any of the resources we have been using for the course (textbook, homework
problems, PPT slides from class, discussion workbooks, ExcelNow!, Zoom videos, etc.).

You may access the files on your laptop. This includes the solution workbooks for the weekly application
problem sets done in discussion sections. It also includes the PPT slides used in lecture.

You are NOT allowed to communicate with anyone whether or not that person is in your class.

The Internet is to be used solely for access to Blackboard. It is not to be used for search, instant
messaging, email or any other purpose. Anyone seen or found to be using the Internet for any
purpose other than access to Blackboard will get an F in the course . In fact, anyone found to have
violated the Academic Integrity policy in any way will get an F in the course. Please read that again. This
does not mean an F on the exam; it means an F in the course. (Sorry for the harsh warning, but there
have been cases in the past where the Academic Integrity policy was not adhered to and the result was
that those students got an F in the course.)

Your cell phone is to be out of sight and used only in the event you feel you have to contact me during
the exam. If you feel you have to contact me to clarify a question, first try to contact Jasleen or me via
private chat. If you get the OK to call my cell number, you can call it: +61 405065839. But please be
very judicious in using this number as experience has shown that my answer to student questions
geared toward getting advice on how to solve a problem is typically, “Please re-read the problem and do
the best you can to solve it.”

There will be several versions of the test. Blackboard will keep track of which version you are taking.

The exam will be in the form of an Excel workbook like those you have been working on in discussion.
An unusual feature of the exam: The numerical answers to some problems will be given in the exam
workbook. Yes, you read this correctly. But in the designated cells where you place your answers, you
must enter Excel formulas that lead to the answers that are given. Your formulas must be such that if
the data for the problem changes, the formulas you provided should automatically show the revised
correct answers. This means you have to be careful to use cell references and not “hard code” values.
As an example, consider the following simple question used to illustrate this point:
 The answer you would provide in cell C6 would be:

=SUM(A6:B6) so that if the numbers in cells A6 and B6

change, the correct sum would be shown in cell C6. If the
result you get from your formula does not match the
result shown in green (see cell D6), you would know there
is something not quite correct in your formula in C6.

In cases where there is a two-part question and you cannot answer the first part, you can use the
answer shown in green in your answer to the second part. For example, suppose the above problem
was the first part of a two-part question and the second part asked you to enter the square-root of your
answer to the first part in cell C7. If you are not able to get the correct answer to the first part, your
answer to the second part can be =SQRT(D6) which shows you know how to do the second part even if
you were not able to do the first part.

You need to be very careful in how you use this information. On the one hand, if you see that the
formula you are using leads to the numerical answer that has been supplied, you can move on to
another problem with reasonable confidence. On the other hand, if you see that you are not getting the
correct answer to a problem, there is the danger that you will spend an inordinate amount of time trying
to fix up the formula so that it yields the correct answer. Thus, do not get hung up on any one
particular problem. If you cannot work through a problem, move on to a problem you are able to
answer.
To be prepared for the Application Exam, you should know and understand the following topics and be
able to apply them using the appropriate analysis.
 Create Excel formulas with relative and absolute addresses so that the formulas can be copied and
give correct results.
 Solve verbal problems and analyze data in a spreadsheet using the following Excel functions: IF,
nested IF functions, AND, OR, combinations of IF with AND and OR, MIN, MAX, QUARTILE, MEDIAN,
AVERAGE, VAR.S, STDEV.S, SUMPRODUCT, COUNT, COUNTIF, COUNTIFS, SUM, SUMIF, SUMIFS,
INDEX, MATCH, NORM.DIST, NORM.S.DIST, NORM.INV, NORM.S.INV, T.DIST, T.INV, T.INV.2T,
BINOM.DIST, CHISQ.DIST, CHISQ.DIST.RT, CHISQ.INV, CHISQ.INV.RT, FREQUENCY, CORREL.
 Use Excel’s Chart feature to create a scatter plot and fit a trend line.
 Use Excel’s Data Table feature to analyze the impact of changes to one or two cells in a spreadsheet.
 Use Excel’s Pivot Table feature to find joint, marginal and conditional probability distributions.
 Use Excel’s functions NORM.DIST through BINOM.DIST listed above to solve probability problems.
Such problems could involve the probability of the union or intersection of mutually exclusive or
independent events and conditional probability.
 Use sample data to create confidence intervals for a population mean and population proportion.
 Use sample data to do hypotheses tests related to a population mean and population proportion.
 Use sample data to conduct a chi square goodness of fit test.
 Use the Analysis ToolPak to run a regression on a data set, interpret the regression output and use
the output to create a prediction interval for the dependent variable.

NOTE: If you do not recall how to use any of the above features or functions of Excel, you should review
how they were used in the weekly discussion assignments and/or review the ExcelNow! Read and
Practice sheets and videos on those topics.

The best way to study for the exam is to review the problem sets we did each week in the discussion
section. The answers to all the problem sets are posted in Blackboard.

The exam will be an Excel workbook you download from Blackboard. You will do your work in the
workbook, save the results and submit it in Blackboard, just like we do in discussion sessions.
 EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure you save your work often! If you have a crash and have to
re-start Excel, you will be expected to pick up where you left off. There will be no allowance for
having to start from scratch if you have not been saving your work very regularly throughout the
exam.

When ready to submit your work, you must do all the following steps:
1. Save your workbook one more time
2. Close Excel
3. Upload the saved file to Blackboard
4. Download the same file from Blackboard and confirm that the file is indeed the latest file and is
not corrupt

AGAIN, PLEASE TAKE NOTE: Do not get hung up on any one particular problem. If you cannot work
through a problem, move on to a problem you are able to answer. And save your work VERY OFTEN!

Carefully read the instructions for every question, especially the words in red font.

You will be bound by the academic integrity policy of USC. This means your work is to be the work of you alone
and you are not to discuss or share any knowledge of the exam with anyone from any section which precedes or
follows yours for this or any other semester. You will be asked to fill in the following sheet in the exam
workbook: