Book Image

CompTIA Data+: DAO-001 Certification Guide

By : Cameron Dodd
Book Image

CompTIA Data+: DAO-001 Certification Guide

By: Cameron Dodd

Overview of this book

The CompTIA Data+ certification exam not only helps validate a skill set required to enter one of the fastest-growing fields in the world, but also is starting to standardize the language and concepts within the field. However, there’s a lot of conflicting information and a lack of existing resources about the topics covered in this exam, and even professionals working in data analytics may need a study guide to help them pass on their first attempt. The CompTIA Data + (DAO-001) Certification Guide will give you a solid understanding of how to prepare, analyze, and report data for better insights. You’ll get an introduction to Data+ certification exam format to begin with, and then quickly dive into preparing data. You'll learn about collecting, cleaning, and processing data along with data wrangling and manipulation. As you progress, you’ll cover data analysis topics such as types of analysis, common techniques, hypothesis techniques, and statistical analysis, before tackling data reporting, common visualizations, and data governance. All the knowledge you've gained throughout the book will be tested with the mock tests that appear in the final chapters. By the end of this book, you’ll be ready to pass the Data+ exam with confidence and take the next step in your career.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
1
Part 1: Preparing Data
7
Part 2: Analyzing Data
13
Part 3: Reporting Data
19
Part 4: Mock Exams

Charting lines, circles, and dots

There are several types of charts that do not contain bars. You have probably heard of some of these, but perhaps not all of them. We will briefly go over common charts that contain lines, circles, and dots and how they are used!

Line charts

The line chart is another iconic chart and is used pretty heavily in certain fields. A line chart tracks changes in a quantitative variable over time. Time is always on the xaxis and your number variable is on the yaxis. These are usually used to look at general trends – is this variable increasing over time, decreasing over time, or staying roughly the same? Alternatively, it can be used to see whether a specific point is breaking a historical trend. Let’s see what a line chart looks like in Figure 13.7:

Figure 13.7 – Line chart

Figure 13.7 – Line chart

Effectively, a single point is made for your quantitative variable for every value on the xaxis, which can be any unit of time...