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Z Scores

This document discusses z-scores and how they can be used to standardize data values. A z-score tells you how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean. The document provides an example of download times for a movie to illustrate z-scores, and shows how z-scores can be used to compare how well a student did on two tests relative to other students.

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Jerome Lingan
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53 views

Z Scores

This document discusses z-scores and how they can be used to standardize data values. A z-score tells you how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean. The document provides an example of download times for a movie to illustrate z-scores, and shows how z-scores can be used to compare how well a student did on two tests relative to other students.

Uploaded by

Jerome Lingan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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z-Scores

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z-Scores
Consider an Internet site that offers movie downloads. Based on data kept by
the site, an estimate of the mean time to download a certain movie is 12 min,
with a standard deviation of 4 min.

When you download this movie, the download takes


20 min, which you think is an unusually long time for the download.

On the other hand, when your friend downloads the movie, the download takes
only 6 min, and your friend is pleasantly surprised at how quickly she receives
the movie.

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z-Scores
In each case, a data value far from the mean is unexpected.

The graph below shows the download times for this movie
using two different measures: the number of minutes a
download time is from the mean and the number of
standard deviations the download time is from the mean.

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z-Scores
The number of standard deviations between a data value and the mean is
known as the data value’s z-score or standard score.

In the next example, we use a student’s z-scores for two tests to determine how
well the student did on each test in comparison to the other students.

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Example 1 – Compare z-Scores
Raul has taken two tests in his chemistry class. He scored 72 on the first test,
for which the mean of all scores was 65 and the standard deviation was 8. He
received a 60 on a second test, for which the mean of all scores was 45 and the
standard deviation was 12. In comparison to the other students, did Raul do
better on the first test or the second test?

Solution:
Find the z-score for each test.

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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

Raul scored 0.875 standard deviation above the mean on the first test and 1.25
standard deviations above the mean on the second test.

These z-scores indicate that, in comparison to his classmates, Raul scored


better on the second test than
he did on the first test.

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