abstract
Through this study, I wanted to determine if the mean composite score for students that studied for the ACT is greater than the mean composite score of students who didn’t study for the exam for NOHS students. To begin this study, I took a random sample of fifty from all juniors and seniors attending North Olmsted High School. I then distributed the fifty surveys asking the students if they took the ACT, what their score was on the ACT if they did take it, and how many hours they spend studying for it if they did take it. After removing all the students who answered no, I was left with only twenty answered surveys. I then entered all my data into Minitab and split the data into one column of scores of people who studied and scores of people who didn’t study at all.
My null hypothesis is that the mean score of people who studied is equal to the mean score of people who didn’t study. My alternative hypothesis is that the mean score for people who studied is greater than the mean score of people who didn’t study. I then conducted a two sample t-test with a 0.05 level of significance. The calculated p-value was 0.7087. I failed to reject the null hypothesis at the 0.05 level of significance because the p-value was greater than alpha. Therefore, there is not sufficient evidence to say that the mean ACT score for students who studied is greater than the mean ACT score for students who didn’t study.
When examining my data, I realized that there doesn’t appear to be a strong pattern. Some students studied many hours and received low scores while some didn’t study at all and received high scores. Even though my sample was very small, it showed me that score seems to be more dependent on the student’s individual test-taking ability, not on whether or not they studied.When examining my data, I realized that there doesn’t appear to be a strong pattern. Some students studied many hours and received low scores while some didn’t study at all and received high scores. Even though my sample was very small, it showed me that score seems to be more dependent on the student’s individual test-taking ability, not on whether or not they studied.