Test of Difference

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Activity No. 14
z-test for Comparing Two Sample Means
Problem
A professor is eager to identify if students coming from private schools are better than those students coming
from public schools in CPA board examination. She gathered the following data:

Student Private Public

No.
1. 88 90
2. 75 89
3. 80 88
4. 89 86
5. 77 85
6. 68 84
7. 88 89
8. 75 91
9. 78 88
10. 82 92
11. 81 87
12. 84 88
13. 85 88
14. 83 86
15. 79 92
16. 91 85
17. 88 84
18. 86 87
19. 85 88
20. 79 88
21. 80 90
22. 83 91
23. 84 92
24. 86 88
25. 82 86
26. 75 87
27. 88 85
28. 76 85
29. 80 86
30. 75 87
31. 77 86
32. 89
 Simple Test of Hypothesis
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Solution:
1. Ho: There is no significant difference between the ratings of students from Private and Public Schools .
(μ 1 = μ 2)

Ha : Ha: There is a significant difference between the ratings of students from Private and Public Schools .

(μ 1 ≠ μ 2) non directional test, two tailed test

2. α = 0.05 (use 0.05 if its not emphasized in the problem)

3. use z-test for comparing two sample means (≥ 30).

4. df = n1 + n2 – 2 = 31+32-2 = 61

Tabular or critical z-value = 1.96

5. Computation:

Use Excel in getting the standard deviation and variance:

s1 (private) = 5.33 s2 (public) = 2.32

(s1)2 (private) = 28.39 (s2)2 (public) = 5.37

Use Data Analysis ToolPak in getting the mean, z-value and p-value.
1 (private) = 81.52 2 (public) = 87.72
z-Test: Two Sample for Means

z-value = -5.9558
Variable 1 Variable 2
Mean 81.51612903 87.71875
p-value = 2.5887 Known Variance 28.4089 5.3824
Observations 31 32
Hypothesized Mean Difference 0
z -5.955760344
P(Z<=z) one-tail 1.29433E-09
z Critical one-tail 1.644853627
P(Z<=z) two-tail 2.58865E-09
z Critical two-tail 1.959963985
 Simple Test of Hypothesis
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Final Table and Discussion

Using the p-value and level of significance

Table 1
Analysis Table of the Mean Scores of the Students From Private and Public Schools
s n p- Decision Remark
Students Computed z value
81.5 5.3

Private 2 3 31

87.7 2.3 2.588 do not reject

Public 2 2 32 -5.9558 7 Ho Significant

Level of significance = 0.05; df = 61

5% level of significance and 61 degrees of freedom

Discussion:

Table 1 presents the mean scores of the two groups of students who took the CPA Board Examination.
The first group is from private school and the second group is from public school. As presented, the group of
students from private school has a mean rating (81.52) which is numerically lower than the mean rating of the
group of students from public school (87.72). To test the data statistically, z-test is utilized (since n ≥ 30). The
findings indicate that the computed z-value (-5.9558) is lesser than the critical z-value (2.5887). This finding
results to the non- rejection of the null hypothesis. This means that at 5% level, there is a significant difference in
the mean ratings of the students in favor of those students from public schools. This implies that the students
from public schools performs better than the private school.