Eastern Africa Statistical Training Centre (EASTC) programmes

Tanzania / Eastern Africa · Eastern Africa Statistical Training Centre · pg

36practice questions written to this syllabus
2subjects

Format

Admission to certificate, diploma, degree and master's programmes in official statistics and data science.

Sections

Over the years

The EASTC home page (read) describes it as serving 19 African countries in statistics and data science and official statistics. Admission tests were not read.

Official source: https://www.eastc.ac.tz/

Subjects this exam draws on

Demography & Vital Statistics23 questionsIndex Numbers, National Accounts & Agricultural Economic Statistics13 questions

Five practice questions, worked

Original questions written to this exam's published syllabus and pattern. Not past papers.

1. What is the main purpose of a post-enumeration survey after a census?

  1. To estimate coverage error, the persons missed or counted twice
  2. To collect data on topics left out of the census questionnaire for budget reasons
  3. To replace the census count in areas where enumerators failed to visit at all
  4. To estimate the next census population by projecting the current count forward
Answer and working

A. To estimate coverage error, the persons missed or counted twice

A PES independently re-enumerates a sample of areas and matches records with the census to estimate net undercount; it can also assess content errors.

Demography & Vital Statistics · Sources of demographic data: census, civil registration and sample registration

2. Two items have base-period expenditure shares of 0.4 and 0.6 and price relatives of 1.10 and 1.30. What is the Laspeyres price index computed as a weighted mean of relatives?

  1. 120.00
  2. 122.00
  3. 121.20
  4. 119.58
Answer and working

B. 122.00

With base expenditure shares as weights, the weighted arithmetic mean of relatives equals the aggregative Laspeyres: 0.4 x 1.10 + 0.6 x 1.30 = 0.44 + 0.78 = 1.22, so 122. 120 is the unweighted mean; 119.58 is the unweighted geometric mean sqrt(1.10 x 1.30) x 100.

Index Numbers, National Accounts & Agricultural Economic Statistics · Index numbers: Laspeyres, Paasche, Fisher and Marshall-Edgeworth

3. When is indirect standardisation preferred to direct standardisation?

  1. When the study population is very large and has complete vital registration
  2. When the standard population's own age distribution is not known at all
  3. When the study population's age rates are unreliable
  4. When the crude death rates of the populations compared are exactly equal
Answer and working

C. When the study population's age rates are unreliable

Indirect standardisation needs only the study population's age distribution and total deaths, applying standard rates to get expected deaths. Direct standardisation needs reliable rates in each study population.

Demography & Vital Statistics · Measures of mortality: crude, age-specific and standardised death rates; infant mortality

4. Barter terms of trade of agriculture have improved by 15%. Which conclusion is justified without further data?

  1. Real farm incomes have risen by about 15%
  2. Farm output volume has risen by 15%
  3. Farm productivity has improved by 15%
  4. Farm prices rose relative to prices farmers pay
Answer and working

D. Farm prices rose relative to prices farmers pay

The barter index is purely a price ratio. Income depends also on quantities sold and costs, and productivity on output per unit of input; a drought could cut output and income while prices, and so the terms of trade, rise.

Index Numbers, National Accounts & Agricultural Economic Statistics · Parity index and terms of trade between agriculture and non-agriculture

5. What is a known weakness of lifetime-migration data from place-of-birth questions?

  1. They count only international migrants and not internal ones
  2. They exclude all migrants who moved more than ten years ago
  3. They double-count every person who moved once
  4. Return and multiple moves are missed
Answer and working

D. Return and multiple moves are missed

A person who moved away and returned to the birthplace appears as a non-migrant; intermediate moves are invisible.

Demography & Vital Statistics · Migration measures

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