In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Stan Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >It seems "Ben" wrote in sci.stat.edu: >>Hi >>I have a question for an upcoming test that I thought I might put to >>anyone.
>>If Jon and Ron both sat the same exam in different years say 200 and >>2001. Jon got 61 with a class average score of 60 and a standard >>deviation of 5 and Ron got 57 where the average was 55 and the >>standard deviation was 5. Who did better and why? >>I think that Ron did better as his score is further away from the >>average score. Is this right? Is there a mathematical way to express >>it? >You're on the right track. >The really naive person simply compares their raw scores and says >Jon did better because his score was higher. >The somewhat more sophisticated person says Ron did better because >he was more points above the average. This may or may not be the case. It could well be that the "average" student in 2000 was at the level of a strong "A" student in 2001. If good examinations are given, the grading should be more or less absolute, and frankly if the mean scores are as given, the standard deviations are MUCH too small for a good examination. -- This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University. Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558 . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
