These study tips are designed to clarify key points and help you to avoid errors that students commonly make. Review the Tips for Success as you study each chapter and review them again after you have studied each chapter.

1. When making predictions using Z scores, you can check your work by being sure that a person’s predicted Z score on the criterion variable is closer to 0 than the person’s Z score on the predictor variable.
2. When using the Z-score prediction model, be careful to use the appropriate mean and standard deviation for the predictor variable (X) and criterion variable (Y).
• That is, to convert X scores to Z_X scores, use the mean and standard deviation of X; to convert scores to scores, use the mean and standard deviation of Y.
3. When drawing a scatter diagram, to help you remember which variable goes on which axis, use the mnemonic "what’s known forms a stable basis for what’s predicted or envisioned up high".
4. Check the accuracy of your regression line on a scatter diagram by predicting any third point. It should also fall on the line.
5. If you have figured the raw-score prediction formula, you can check the accuracy of your line by figuring the amount the line goes up for each point across. This should be the same as b. You can also note where the line crosses the vertical axis (presuming the vertical axis is set at 0 on the horizontal axis). This should be the same as a.
6. When you do calculations for the various procedures presented in this chapter, be sure to consider at each step what it is you are doing and why you are doing it.
• By focusing on the logic and meaning of each step, you will enhance your conceptual understanding of the material.

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