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Date May Specimen paper Marks available 2 Reference code SPM.1.SL.TZ0.9
Level Standard Level Paper Paper 1 Time zone Time zone 0
Command term State Question number 9 Adapted from N/A

Question

Ms Calhoun measures the heights of students in her mathematics class. She is interested to see if the mean height of male students, μ1μ1, is the same as the mean height of female students, μ2μ2. The information is recorded in the table.

At the 10 % level of significance, a tt-test was used to compare the means of the two groups. The data is assumed to be normally distributed and the standard deviations are equal between the two groups.

State the null hypothesis.

[1]
a.i.

State the alternative hypothesis.

[1]
a.ii.

Calculate the pp-value for this test.

[2]
b.

State, giving a reason, whether Ms Calhoun should accept the null hypothesis.

[2]
c.

Markscheme

μ1μ2=0μ1μ2=0     A1

Note: Accept equivalent statements in words.

[1 mark]

a.i.

μ1μ20μ1μ20    A1

Note: Accept equivalent statements in words.

[1 mark]

a.ii.

0.296 (0.295739…)      A2

[2 marks]

b.

0.296 > 0.1     R1

fail to reject the null hypothesis, there is no difference between the mean height of male and female students      A1

Note: Award (R1) for a correct comparison of their pp-value to the test level, award (A1) for the correct interpretation from that comparison.
Do not award R0A1.

[2 marks]

c.

Examiners report

[N/A]
a.i.
[N/A]
a.ii.
[N/A]
b.
[N/A]
c.

Syllabus sections

Topic 4—Statistics and probability » SL 4.11—Expected, observed, hypotheses, chi squared, gof, t-test
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Topic 4—Statistics and probability

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