solving problem 6

Part 1:

Suppose that the distributions of three statistics classes were:

• Class 1: mean=88.7%, SD=1.2
• Class 2: mean=65.6%, SD=3.4
• Class 3: mean=71.2%, SD=.75

Based on the distributions, discuss which statistics class you would want to be in and why.

Hint: Review the material that discusses the measures of central tendency (i.e., mean) and measures of variability (e.g., standard deviation).

Part 2:

Your task is to estimate the proportion of students at your college or university who expect to take longer than 4 years to finish their degree. To accomplish this task you will need to develop a suitable sampling frame and sampling approach. You have a lot of latitude here, with the one exception being that your sample must be a random sample. Complete the steps below to complete the task:

• Describe your sampling frame.
• Describe how you would select a sample from the sampling frame you identified.
• Describe the way in which you would ensure that the selection of the sample is random.
• Discuss what sort of problems you might run into if you were to actually select the sample as you described and why?

Note: You are not being asked to actually go out and select a sample. You are being asked to hypothetically think about how you would identify a sampling frame, select a random sample from that sampling frame, and to discuss any potential problems related to your methodology.