Evaluating Statistical Claims — Digital SAT SAT Math revision notes
A 3-page visual revision sheet for Evaluating Statistical Claims, written for Digital SAT SAT Math. Formulas, diagrams and the traps that cost marks, laid out to be read the night before rather than the term before. Free, and it opens inside CapCompass.
Page 1 as PDF
Evaluating Statistical Claims in one look
what a study design does and does not let you say
Two questions decide every answer here
- were the people chosen at random from a population? If yes, the result can be extended to that population. If not, it describes only the people studied
- were the people assigned at random to the groups being compared? If yes, a difference between the groups can be blamed on the treatment. If not, it never can
- those two questions are independent, so a study can pass one and fail the other. Random selection buys you reach, random assignment buys you cause, and neither buys the other
- there is almost no arithmetic in this chapter. The whole task is matching the strength of a sentence to the strength of the design
- budget 40 to 60 seconds a question, comfortably inside the 95 seconds the 44-question, 70-minute Math section averages. Read the design once, read the options once, choose
What is this study allowed to claim
check the design against the two questions, then read off what the study supports
- random sample AND random assignment — cause, for that population: the strongest claim any study on this test can support
- random sample, no random assignment — association, for that population: the link is real across the population, the direction of cause is not established
- random assignment, volunteers not randomly chosen — cause, for those volunteers only: the treatment worked here, and nothing is proved about anyone else
- neither — a description of the people studied: no cause and no reach beyond the group measured
Page 1 of 3. The full sheet, all 3 pages, opens free in the app.
What this Evaluating Statistical Claims sheet covers
- Two questions decide every answer here
- What is this study allowed to claim
- What a cloud of data can show you
- Three innocent reasons two things move together
- The two study designs
- Observational study
- Randomised experiment
- Reading the options as sentences
- Associated with
- Caused, improved
- All, every, everyone
- Would, will, if we
- Worked: judging a claim against a design
- Traps that cost points
- Tricks that save time
How CapCompass uses this sheet
These notes are not a standalone PDF. CapCompass plans SAT Math chapter by chapter against your real exam dates and free hours, and when the plan reaches Evaluating Statistical Claims the sheet opens inside the study block itself — at the page covering the sub-topic that block is on, with the timer still running. Revision arrives at the moment the plan says revise, instead of having to be gone looking for.
More SAT Math revision notes
- Area and Volume
- Circles
- Equivalent Expressions and Polynomials
- Inference and Margin of Error
- Linear Equations
- Linear Functions
- Linear Inequalities
- Lines, Angles, Triangles
- Nonlinear Equations in One Variable
- Nonlinear Functions
- Nonlinear Systems
- One-variable Data
- Percentages
- Probability and Conditional Probability
- Ratios, Rates and Proportions
- Systems of Equations
- Triangles and Trigonometry
- Two-variable Data
- Units, Rates and Conversions