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PHARM 480: FINAL EXAM PRACTICE
EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
(VERIFIED AND UPDATED)
You are discussing your friend's research project and she says her primary outcome had a mean
of 30, a median of 36 and a mode of 39. this tells you the nature of the outcome was:
a. continuous, with a normal distribution
b. continuous, with a skewed distribution
c. ordinal
d. nominal - ANS continuous, with a skewed distribution
the mean age of a population is 48 years with a standard deviation of 11. which of the following
must be true?
a. the youngest person in the population is 26 years old
b. the oldest person in the population is 81 years old
c. 95% of the population is between 26 and 70 years old
d. 99% of the population is between 26 and 70 years old - ANS 95% of the population is
between 26 and 70 years old
assume normal serum potassium is 3.6 to 5.0 mmol/L. if your serum potassium is measured as
4.9 mmol/L which statement below is most accurate?
@2026/2027 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
,a. your potassium is with 1 standard deviation of the mean
b. your potassium is with 2 standard deviations of the mean
c. your potassium is with 3 standard deviations of the mean - ANS your potassium is with 2
standard deviations of the mean
if 2 drugs are compared to each other in a study, and the difference has a 95% confidence
interval of 15 to 45 units, which statement is true?
a. a true difference of 51 is possible
b. a true difference of 51 is unlikely but possible
c. a true difference of 51 is highly likely - ANS a true difference of 51 is unlikely but possible
a study of 64 people took a medication to lower blood pressure. the average reduction in
systolic pressure was 10 mmHg with a standard deviation of 6. what is the 95% confidence
internal for true reduction in systolic pressure?
a. 4 to 16
b. 9.9 to 10.1
c. 8.5 to 11.5
d. we cannot calculate - ANS 8.5 to 11.5
if 2 drugs are compared to each other in a study, and the difference has a 95% confidence
interval of 15 to 45 units, what is the standard error of the mean?
a. 7.5
b. 15
c. 30
d. it is not possible to calculate - ANS 7.5
@2026/2027 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
,two drugs are compared to each other and the difference is not statistically significant, with
p=0.22. which statement is true?
a. the 2 drugs are noninferior to each other
b. the difference between drugs is quite large
c. we have insufficient information to draw any conclusion
d. the study made a type 1 error - ANS we have insufficient information to draw any
conclusion
a drug was found to reduce the risk of acute renal failure in hospitalized patients and p was
0.02. if the study investigators conclude the drug is effective, which potential error could they
be making?
a. type 1
b. type 2
c. neither, since the effect is statistically significant - ANS type 1
if need to be 99% confident about an estimate of a drug effect, we would need to take the mean
of our study's primary outcome plus/minus:
a. one standard error
b. two standard deviations
c. three standard errors
d. three standard deviations - ANS three standard errors
if a study reports a hazard ratio you would expect the study to have used a:
a. regression analysis
b. comparison of confidence intervals
c. meta-analysis
d. time to event analysis - ANS time to event analysis
@2026/2027 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
, if most of the p values for the outcomes in a study are <0.05, we know the study had good
internal validity
a. true
b. false - ANS false
in comparing two drugs, drug A was superior to drug B on the primary outcome with a one-
sided p value of 0.01. which of the following must be true?
a. confounding is highly unlikely
b. the difference in drug response is quite large
c. if drug responses vary randomly, the probability of this difference occuring by chance alone is
1 in 100
d. all of the above - ANS if drug responses vary randomly, the probability of this difference
occuring by chance alone is 1 in 100
if you are doing a superiority study and want to set it up to increase the probability of a finding
statistically significant difference in outcome, what is appropriate to do?
a. decrease the size of your clinically relevant
b. lower the alpha error by reducing the level of p value considered significant
c. decrease the variability of your sample subjects
d. all of the above - ANS decrease the variability of your sample subjects
which of the following has greater power to detect a relevant difference for any given outcome?
a. one study with 34,000 patients
b. a meta-analysis with a total of 21,000 patients - ANS one study with 34,000 patients
@2026/2027 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
PHARM 480: FINAL EXAM PRACTICE
EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
(VERIFIED AND UPDATED)
You are discussing your friend's research project and she says her primary outcome had a mean
of 30, a median of 36 and a mode of 39. this tells you the nature of the outcome was:
a. continuous, with a normal distribution
b. continuous, with a skewed distribution
c. ordinal
d. nominal - ANS continuous, with a skewed distribution
the mean age of a population is 48 years with a standard deviation of 11. which of the following
must be true?
a. the youngest person in the population is 26 years old
b. the oldest person in the population is 81 years old
c. 95% of the population is between 26 and 70 years old
d. 99% of the population is between 26 and 70 years old - ANS 95% of the population is
between 26 and 70 years old
assume normal serum potassium is 3.6 to 5.0 mmol/L. if your serum potassium is measured as
4.9 mmol/L which statement below is most accurate?
@2026/2027 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
,a. your potassium is with 1 standard deviation of the mean
b. your potassium is with 2 standard deviations of the mean
c. your potassium is with 3 standard deviations of the mean - ANS your potassium is with 2
standard deviations of the mean
if 2 drugs are compared to each other in a study, and the difference has a 95% confidence
interval of 15 to 45 units, which statement is true?
a. a true difference of 51 is possible
b. a true difference of 51 is unlikely but possible
c. a true difference of 51 is highly likely - ANS a true difference of 51 is unlikely but possible
a study of 64 people took a medication to lower blood pressure. the average reduction in
systolic pressure was 10 mmHg with a standard deviation of 6. what is the 95% confidence
internal for true reduction in systolic pressure?
a. 4 to 16
b. 9.9 to 10.1
c. 8.5 to 11.5
d. we cannot calculate - ANS 8.5 to 11.5
if 2 drugs are compared to each other in a study, and the difference has a 95% confidence
interval of 15 to 45 units, what is the standard error of the mean?
a. 7.5
b. 15
c. 30
d. it is not possible to calculate - ANS 7.5
@2026/2027 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
,two drugs are compared to each other and the difference is not statistically significant, with
p=0.22. which statement is true?
a. the 2 drugs are noninferior to each other
b. the difference between drugs is quite large
c. we have insufficient information to draw any conclusion
d. the study made a type 1 error - ANS we have insufficient information to draw any
conclusion
a drug was found to reduce the risk of acute renal failure in hospitalized patients and p was
0.02. if the study investigators conclude the drug is effective, which potential error could they
be making?
a. type 1
b. type 2
c. neither, since the effect is statistically significant - ANS type 1
if need to be 99% confident about an estimate of a drug effect, we would need to take the mean
of our study's primary outcome plus/minus:
a. one standard error
b. two standard deviations
c. three standard errors
d. three standard deviations - ANS three standard errors
if a study reports a hazard ratio you would expect the study to have used a:
a. regression analysis
b. comparison of confidence intervals
c. meta-analysis
d. time to event analysis - ANS time to event analysis
@2026/2027 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
, if most of the p values for the outcomes in a study are <0.05, we know the study had good
internal validity
a. true
b. false - ANS false
in comparing two drugs, drug A was superior to drug B on the primary outcome with a one-
sided p value of 0.01. which of the following must be true?
a. confounding is highly unlikely
b. the difference in drug response is quite large
c. if drug responses vary randomly, the probability of this difference occuring by chance alone is
1 in 100
d. all of the above - ANS if drug responses vary randomly, the probability of this difference
occuring by chance alone is 1 in 100
if you are doing a superiority study and want to set it up to increase the probability of a finding
statistically significant difference in outcome, what is appropriate to do?
a. decrease the size of your clinically relevant
b. lower the alpha error by reducing the level of p value considered significant
c. decrease the variability of your sample subjects
d. all of the above - ANS decrease the variability of your sample subjects
which of the following has greater power to detect a relevant difference for any given outcome?
a. one study with 34,000 patients
b. a meta-analysis with a total of 21,000 patients - ANS one study with 34,000 patients
@2026/2027 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
