UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2016/2017
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF SCIENCE IN
DATA ANALYTICS/INFORMATION SYSTEMS
MDA5105 MISM5105: PRINCIPLES OF DATA SCIENCE
ORDINARY EXAMINATIONS
DATE: AUGUST, 2017 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE [20 MARKS]
a) Explain the term Visualization and discuss its use in data analytics 3 Marks
b) Describe the value of using the data analytics life cycle 3 Marks
c) Differentiate between the following terms as used in big data analytics:
i) ELT and ETL 4 Marks
ii) classification and clustering 4 Marks
iii) Semi structured and quasi structured data 3 Marks
iv) Data exploration and data presentation 3 Marks
QUESTION TWO [15 MARKS]
Scenerio
A medium size retail bank in kenya wants to improve its net present value and its retention
rate of customers.They want to establish an effective market campaign targeting customers to
reduce the churn rate by at least 5%. They also want to determine whether those customers are
worth retaining. In addition they want to analyze reasons for customer attrition and what they
can do to keep them. They want to build a data-ware house to support marketing and other
customer related care groups.
Required:
Perform an analytic plan for the bank above case study above 15 Marks
QUESTION THREE [15 MARKS]
a) Discuss the benefits of doing a pilot program before a full scale roll out of a new
analytical methodology 6 Marks
b)Misusing charts tends to confuse the audience. Discuss this statement in the light of the
different type of charts and when best to use them. 9 Marks
QUESTION FOUR [15 MARKS]
a) Discuss four Competencies of a data scientist 4 Marks
b) Everyone and everything is leaving a digital footprint today. Discuss the main sources
of data used for data analytics today. 5 Marks
c) For each gigabyte of new data you create, a petabyte of data is created about that data.
Explain this statement using a recommender system example. 6 Marks.
