Evaluation metrics (accuracy, F1, confusion matrix) in NLP - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What does accuracy measure in a classification model?

Accuracy measures the percentage of correct predictions out of all predictions made by the model. It tells us how often the model is right.

intermediate

Explain the F1 score in simple terms.

The F1 score is the balance between precision (how many selected items are relevant) and recall (how many relevant items are selected). It is useful when you want to balance false positives and false negatives.

beginner

What is a confusion matrix?

A confusion matrix is a table that shows the number of correct and incorrect predictions broken down by each class. It helps us see where the model makes mistakes.

intermediate

How do false positives and false negatives relate to the confusion matrix?

False positives are cases where the model predicted positive but the true label is negative. False negatives are cases where the model predicted negative but the true label is positive. Both appear in the confusion matrix.

intermediate

Why might accuracy be misleading in some cases?

Accuracy can be misleading when classes are imbalanced. For example, if 95% of data is one class, a model that always predicts that class will have high accuracy but poor real performance.

Which metric balances precision and recall?

A F1 score

B Accuracy

C Confusion matrix

D Loss function

The F1 score combines precision and recall into a single metric.

What does the diagonal of a confusion matrix represent?

A False positives

B Correct predictions

C False negatives

D Total samples

The diagonal shows the number of correct predictions for each class.

If a model has high accuracy but low F1 score, what might be true?

A The model is perfect

B The model has no false positives

C The confusion matrix is empty

D The data is imbalanced

High accuracy with low F1 often means the model is biased toward the majority class.

Which of these is NOT part of a confusion matrix?

A True positives

B True negatives

C Loss values

D False positives

Loss values are not shown in a confusion matrix.

What does recall measure?

A How many relevant items are selected

B How many selected items are relevant

C Overall accuracy

D Number of false positives

Recall measures the proportion of actual positives that were correctly identified.

Describe what a confusion matrix is and how it helps evaluate a classification model.

Think of it as a table showing correct and wrong predictions for each class.

Explain why accuracy alone might not be enough to judge a model's performance and when F1 score is more useful.

Consider a case where one class is much bigger than others.

Practice

1. What does the accuracy metric measure in a classification model?

easy

A. The proportion of correct predictions out of all predictions

B. The balance between precision and recall

C. The number of false positives only

D. The total number of classes in the dataset

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand accuracy definition

   Accuracy is defined as the number of correct predictions divided by the total number of predictions made.

2. Step 2: Compare options with definition

   Only The proportion of correct predictions out of all predictions correctly describes accuracy as the proportion of correct predictions out of all predictions.

3. Final Answer:

   The proportion of correct predictions out of all predictions -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Accuracy = Correct predictions / Total predictions [OK]

Hint: Accuracy = correct predictions divided by total predictions [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing accuracy with F1 score
• Thinking accuracy measures only false positives
• Believing accuracy counts number of classes

2. Which of the following is the correct formula for F1 score?

easy

A. Precision + Recall

B. 2 * (Precision * Recall) / (Precision + Recall)

C. True Positives / Total Samples

D. True Negatives / (True Negatives + False Positives)

Solution

1. Step 1: Recall F1 score formula

   F1 score is the harmonic mean of precision and recall, calculated as 2 times their product divided by their sum.

2. Step 2: Match formula with options

   2 * (Precision * Recall) / (Precision + Recall) matches the correct formula: 2 * (Precision * Recall) / (Precision + Recall).

3. Final Answer:

   2 * (Precision * Recall) / (Precision + Recall) -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   F1 = 2PR/(P+R) [OK]

Hint: F1 score = 2 * Precision * Recall / (Precision + Recall) [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Adding precision and recall instead of harmonic mean
• Using true positives over total samples as F1
• Confusing F1 with specificity

3. Given the confusion matrix below for a binary classifier:

[[50, 10],
 [5, 35]]

What is the accuracy of the model?

medium

A. 75%

B. 70%

C. 90%

D. 85%

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify confusion matrix values

   True Positives (TP) = 50, False Positives (FP) = 10, False Negatives (FN) = 5, True Negatives (TN) = 35.

2. Step 2: Calculate accuracy

   Accuracy = (TP + TN) / (TP + FP + FN + TN) = (50 + 35) / (50 + 10 + 5 + 35) = 85 / 100 = 0.85 or 85%.

3. Final Answer:

   85% -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Accuracy = (TP+TN)/Total = 85/100 = 85% [OK]

Hint: Accuracy = (TP + TN) / total samples [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Adding false positives or false negatives to numerator
• Calculating only TP / total samples
• Mixing up TP and TN values

4. You have this confusion matrix:

[[40, 20],
 [10, 30]]

Which line of code correctly calculates precision for the positive class?

medium

A. precision = TP / (TP + FP)

B. precision = TP / (TP + FN)

C. precision = TN / (TN + FP)

D. precision = TP / (TP + TN)

Solution

1. Step 1: Recall precision formula

   Precision is the ratio of true positives to all predicted positives: TP / (TP + FP).

2. Step 2: Match formula with options

   precision = TP / (TP + FP) correctly uses TP / (TP + FP). precision = TP / (TP + FN) uses recall formula, C and D are incorrect.

3. Final Answer:

   precision = TP / (TP + FP) -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Precision = TP / (TP + FP) [OK]

Hint: Precision = true positives / predicted positives [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using TP / (TP + FN) which is recall
• Confusing TN with TP in precision
• Dividing by TP + TN instead of TP + FP

5. A model has precision = 0.8 and recall = 0.5. What is the F1 score? Choose the closest value.

hard

A. 0.70

B. 0.65

C. 0.62

D. 0.75

Solution

1. Step 1: Recall F1 score formula

   F1 = 2 * (Precision * Recall) / (Precision + Recall) = 2 * (0.8 * 0.5) / (0.8 + 0.5).

2. Step 2: Calculate F1 score

   Calculate numerator: 2 * 0.4 = 0.8. Calculate denominator: 1.3. F1 = 0.8 / 1.3 ≈ 0.615.

3. Final Answer:

   0.62 -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   F1 ≈ 0.62 from 0.8 precision and 0.5 recall [OK]

Hint: F1 is harmonic mean: 2PR/(P+R), plug values carefully [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Averaging precision and recall instead of harmonic mean
• Mixing up precision and recall values
• Rounding too early causing wrong final answer