Final answer:
The statement relating the requirement to merge categories with the number of BQ candidates to be false. Combining categories ensures the validity of statistical tests by meeting the minimum expected value criterion.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement regarding the requirement for there to be fewer than three Board Qualified (BQ) candidates to merge categories is false. In statistical analysis, particularly when dealing with chi-square tests of independence or goodness-of-fit, it is important to ensure that expected frequencies in each category are sufficient to meet the assumptions of the test. Specifically, each cell in a contingency table should have an expected value of at least five. When some expected values are less than five, it is common practice to combine categories to achieve these minimum expected values, but there is no specific rule about the number of BQ candidates in the context of merging categories for this purpose.