Plus-four interval

The plus-four interval adds two successes and two failures before building a proportion interval, which improves coverage in small samples.

This is a college-level adjustment and is not part of the AP Statistics course effective Fall 2026, so use the ordinary one-sample z-interval on AP work. You compute p~=x+2n+4\tilde{p} = \frac{x+2}{n+4} (p-tilde, the adjusted proportion) and then form p~±zp~(1p~)n+4\tilde{p} \pm z^*\sqrt{\frac{\tilde{p}(1-\tilde{p})}{n+4}}. For example, 3 successes in 10 trials gives p~=5/14=0.3571\tilde{p} = 5/14 = 0.3571, a standard error of 0.3571(0.6429)/14=0.1281\sqrt{0.3571(0.6429)/14} = 0.1281, and a 95% interval of 0.3571±1.96(0.1281)0.3571 \pm 1.96(0.1281), or 0.106 to 0.608. Padding the counts pulls the estimate toward 0.5 and keeps the interval from collapsing to a single point when x is 0 or n.

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