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Date None Specimen Marks available 1 Reference code SPNone.3sp.hl.TZ0.4
Level HL only Paper Paper 3 Statistics and probability Time zone TZ0
Command term State Question number 4 Adapted from N/A

Question

The students in a class take an examination in Applied Mathematics which consists of two papers. Paper 1 is in Mechanics and Paper 2 is in Statistics. The marks obtained by the students in Paper 1 and Paper 2 are denoted by \((x,{\text{ }}y)\) respectively and you may assume that the values of \((x,{\text{ }}y)\) form a random sample from a bivariate normal distribution with correlation coefficient \(\rho \) . The teacher wishes to determine whether or not there is a positive association between marks in Mechanics and marks in Statistics.

State suitable hypotheses.

[1]
a.

The marks obtained by the 12 students who sat both papers are given in the following table. 

(i)     Determine the product moment correlation coefficient for these data and state its p-value.

(ii)     Interpret your p-value in the context of the problem.

[5]
b.

George obtained a mark of 63 on Paper 1 but was unable to sit Paper 2 because of illness. Predict the mark that he would have obtained on Paper 2.

[4]
c.

Another class of 16 students sat examinations in Physics and Chemistry and the product moment correlation coefficient between the marks in these two subjects was calculated to be 0.524. Using a 1 % significance level, determine whether or not this value suggests a positive association between marks in Physics and marks in Chemistry.

[5]
d.

Markscheme

\({{\text{H}}_0}:\rho  = 0;{\text{ }}{{\text{H}}_1}:\rho  > 0\)     A1

[1 mark]

a.

(i)     correlation coefficient = 0.905     A2

p-value \( = 2.61 \times {10^{ - 5}}\)     A2

 

(ii)     very strong evidence to indicate a positive association between marks in Mechanics and marks in Statistics     R1 

[5 marks]

b.

the regression line of y on x is \(y = 8.71 + 0.789x\)     (M1)A1

George’s estimated mark on Paper 2 \( = 8.71 + 0.789 \times 63\)     (M1)

= 58     A1

[4 marks]

c.

\(t = r\sqrt {\frac{{n - 2}}{{1 - {r^2}}}}  = 2.3019 \ldots \)     M1A1

degrees of freedom = 14     (A1)

p-value \( = 0.0186 \ldots \)     A1

at the 1 % significance level, this does not indicate a positive association between the marks in Physics and Chemistry     R1

[5 marks]

d.

Examiners report

[N/A]
a.
[N/A]
b.
[N/A]
c.
[N/A]
d.

Syllabus sections

Topic 7 - Option: Statistics and probability » 7.7 » Introduction to bivariate distributions.

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