You conduct a survey of a sample of 25 members of this yearï¿½s graduating marketing students and find that the average GPA is 3.2. The standard deviation of the sample is 0.4. Over the last 10 years, the average GPA has been 3.0. Is the GPA of this yearï¿½s students significantly different from the long-run average? At what alpha level would it be significant?

Question

You conduct a survey of a sample of 25 members of this yearï¿½s graduating marketing students and find that the average GPA is 3.2.  The standard deviation of the sample is 0.4.  Over the last 10 years, the average GPA has been 3.0.  Is the GPA of this yearï¿½s students significantly different from the long-run average?  At what alpha level would it be significant?

PsyDAG · Answer

Z = (mean1 - mean2)/standard error (SE) of difference between means

SEdiff = √(SEmean1^2 + SEmean2^2)

SEm = SD/√(n-1)

If only one SD is provided, you can use just that to determine SEdiff.

Find table in the back of your statistics text labeled something like "areas under normal distribution" to find the proportion related to your Z score.