You are testing the claim that the mean GPA of night students is greater than the mean GPA of day students.

You sample 30 night students, and the sample mean GPA is 2.66 with a standard deviation of 0.98

You sample 60 day students, and the sample mean GPA is 2.32 with a standard deviation of 0.54

Calculate the test statistic, rounded to 2 decimal places

1 answer

To test the claim that the mean GPA of night students is greater than the mean GPA of day students, we can use a two-sample t-test for the difference in means.

Step 1: Define the parameters.

  • Sample size of night students (\( n_1 = 30 \))

  • Sample mean GPA of night students (\( \bar{x}_1 = 2.66 \))

  • Standard deviation of night students (\( s_1 = 0.98 \))

  • Sample size of day students (\( n_2 = 60 \))

  • Sample mean GPA of day students (\( \bar{x}_2 = 2.32 \))

  • Standard deviation of day students (\( s_2 = 0.54 \))

Step 2: Calculate the standard error (SE) of the difference in means.

\[ SE = \sqrt{\frac{s_1^2}{n_1} + \frac{s_2^2}{n_2}} \]

Calculating \( s_1^2 \) and \( s_2^2 \):

\[ s_1^2 = 0.98^2 = 0.9604 \] \[ s_2^2 = 0.54^2 = 0.2916 \]

Now, substituting the values:

\[ SE = \sqrt{\frac{0.9604}{30} + \frac{0.2916}{60}} \]

Calculating each part:

\[ \frac{0.9604}{30} = 0.03201333 \] \[ \frac{0.2916}{60} = 0.00486 \]

Now, combine these:

\[ SE = \sqrt{0.03201333 + 0.00486} = \sqrt{0.03687333} \approx 0.6072 \]

Step 3: Calculate the test statistic (t).

The formula for the t-statistic when comparing two means is given by:

\[ t = \frac{\bar{x}_1 - \bar{x}_2}{SE} \]

Substituting the values:

\[ t = \frac{2.66 - 2.32}{0.6072} = \frac{0.34}{0.6072} \approx 0.56 \]

Step 4: Round the test statistic to two decimal places:

\[ t \approx 0.56 \]

Therefore, the test statistic is:

\[ \boxed{0.56} \]