ACT Math Experiment questions

Test Preparation ACT Preparation
1

Ok so I missed #24 on the first practice test of the 2016-2017 prep guide and I was wondering could elaborate or link an explanantion.

To test a new medicine, each of 300 volunteers was assigned a distinct number from 1 to 300. Next, a calculator was used to simulate drawing 150 balls from among 300 congruent balls. The balls were numbered the same way as the volunteers so that 150 volunteers to receive the new medication would be chosen without bias. The other volunteers received a placebo. Weeks later, the 2 groups were compared. Which of the following phrases best describes the company’s testing?
F. Randomized census
G. Randomized experiment
H. Nonrandomized experiment
J. Randomized sample survey
K. Nonrandomized sample survey

The answer is G. I was wondering what to expect about these kinds of questions and what to know about all of the vocab words in the answers.

2

Try to solve this one by process of elimination. The volunteers were randomly given a ball with either a placebo or medicine, so it cannot be H or K. A census is an organzied counting of a population, so it obviously cannot be F. We are left with survey or experiment. A survey is basically a questionaire to obtain information, so the answer is not J. This leaves G, which makes sense because this was an experiment done on volunteers.

3

Well it’s certainly not a survey since no questions are being asked, and a census is populaion count. Between G and H, the experiment describes random order so it is G. I would love to have this question on my real test :slight_smile: