A Statistics Course at a Large University Is Taught in Each

question 71

Essay

A statistics course at a large university is taught in each semester. A student has noticed that the students in semester 1 and semester 2 are enrolled in different degrees. To investigate, the student takes a random sample of 25 students from semester 1 and 25 students from semester 2 and records their final marks (%) provided in the table below. Excel was used to generate descriptive statistics on each sample.
Assume that student final marks are normally distributed in each semester. (a) Determine whether these data are sufficient to infer at the 10% level of significance that the two population variances differ.
(b) Explain the decision of your test in part (a) in the context of this question.

---

Definitions:

Duration

A measure of the average life of a bond, defined as the weighted average of the times until each payment is made, with weights proportional to the present value of the payment.

Bond

A fixed income instrument that represents a loan made by an investor to a borrower, typically corporate or governmental.

Zero-Coupon Bond

A bond paying no coupons that sells at a discount and provides only payment of face value at maturity.

Discount Rate

The interest rate used to discount future cash flows to their present values, often used in investment appraisal and risk assessment.