Question

4
a certain college randomly selected 30 freshman students who completed college algebra during their first semester. fifteen students were chosen from students who took the course at night and 15 students were chosen from students who took the course during the day. the following statistical information was calculated from their final grades.
\t\t\t\t\t\tday\tnight
\t\t\tmean\t76\t68
\t\t\tmedian\t68\t72
\t\t\tmode\t64\t72
\t\t\trange\t38\t53
based on these samples, what generalization can be made? (assume that a score of 70 or greater is a passing score.)
\ta. the mean score for the day students was higher than the mean score for the night students.
\tb. the range of scores was larger for the day students than for the night students.
\tc. the mean score for the night students was higher than the mean score for the day students.
\td. the median score for the day students was higher than the median score for the night students.
reset\tnext

Explanation:

• For option A: The mean score for day students is 76 and for night students is 68. So, 76 > 68, meaning the mean score for day students is higher than that for night students.
• For option B: The range for day students is 38 and for night students is 53. Since 38 < 53, the range for night students is larger, so this option is incorrect.
• For option C: As calculated from the mean values (76 for day, 68 for night), the mean for night students is not higher than that for day students, so this option is incorrect.
• For option D: The median for day students is 68 and for night students is 72. Since 68 < 72, the median for day students is not higher than that for night students, so this option is incorrect.

Answer:

A. The mean score for the day students was higher than the mean score for the night students.