IB Mathematical Studies SL Internal Assessment: What is the relationship between gender and the number of times a person takes

the SAT?

William Anderson Walter Hines Page High School January 9th, 2012 1,101 Words

William Anderson

Introduction
In this internal assessment, I am going to investigate whether the number of times the SAT Test is taken per person is independent of gender at Page High School. I have decided to investigate this because many girls that I know at my school seem to have taken the SAT1 many times, while the males seem more satisfied with their scores. I want to know whether I am generalizing or if it is actually true. I am going to do this by gathering a class roster of every English class comprised of students in their senior year. I will then assign random numbers from one to the total number of classes available (i.e. if there are 30 classes, then numbers will go from 1-30). These classes will be separated by level; the order will be as follows: College Preparatory (CP) level, Honors level, Advanced Placement (AP) level, and International Baccalaureate (IB) level. Two classrooms from each category will be randomly selected from the table of random digits; eight classes will be surveyed in total. Then, all students in each of the classes will be given a survey (Appendix I). All students that state on the survey that they will take the SAT more times in the future will be discarded. This will be done because students that plan to take the test in the future could skew the data. These people could either plan to take it and end up not taking the test or actually take it more than once. In total, ninety-four students were used for the survey after the rest were discarded. I will use a Chi-Squared Test for Independence to calculate whether there is a statistically significant difference between the genders.

HO: The number of times the SAT Test is taken is independent of gender H1: The number of times the SAT Test is taken is associated with gender

Information/Measurement
After gathering the surveys, I proceeded to sort the data. My raw data (Appendix II) includes the results for the Gender and Number of times the SAT was taken for each respondent. The observed values are great quality since all categories contain at least the minimum number required for each section. There are no categories with zero respondents and this is a positive. Therefore, the quantity of data is exceptional.

The SAT is the most widely used college admission exam in the United States.

William Anderson Observed Values # of Times taking SAT 1 2 3 4 5 Total Males 11 12 10 5 1 39 Females 11 18 18 7 1 55 Total 22 30 28 12 2 94

Mathematical Processes
For the assessment, the Chi-Squared Test for Independence was carried out. The chi-squared value to four significant figures was found to be 1.128. When calculating the expected values and chi-squared value by hand, each number was rounded to three decimal places. A TI-84 Graphing Calculator was used as well to calculate the chi-squared value and p-value. The chi-squared value as calculated by the graphing instrument was 1.28333888 while the p-value was 0.8897510576. The degrees of freedom calculated by the GDC and by hand was 4. A screenshot of the TI-84 Calculator that was used is provided. Chi-Squared Test for Independence Formula is the observed value and is the expected value

Calculations for Expected Values # of Times taking SAT 1 2 3 4 5 Males Females

William Anderson Expected Values (Rounded to three decimal places) # of Times taking SAT 1 2 3 4 5 Males 9.128 12.447 11.617 4.979 0.617 Females 12.872 17.553 16.383 7.021 1.170

Calculations for Chi-Squared Value

Screenshot of Calculator Calculation for Chi-Squared Value & p-value

Calculations for Degrees of Freedom [ Five-number Summary Males 1 1 2 3 5 Females 1 2 2 3 5 ] [ ]

Sample Minimum Lower Quartile Median Upper Quartile Sample Maximum

William Anderson Calculations for mean number of times the SAT was taken Males

Females

William Anderson

Interpretation of Results
After viewing the calculated chi-squared value, conclusions can be made. The chi-squared critical value for four degrees of freedom at is 9.488. Since the calculated chi-squared value is 1.28 and lower than the critical value of 9.488, the null hypothesis is accepted. The p-value of 0.8897510576 provided by the GDC is greater than the alpha level of 0.05; this can be used to accept the null hypothesis as well. Seniors at Walter Hines Page High School do not take the SAT Test a different number of times whether they are males of females. Therefore, I must believe that my observations prior to the investigation are biased and that is why I believed females took the test more times. The data also tells us that most students take the SAT two to three times, while few take it four or five times. The average number of times the SAT was taken was 2.3 for all respondents.

Number of times the SAT was taken per gender

20 Number of People 15 10 5 0 1 2 3 Number of Times 4 5 Males Females

Number of times SAT was taken

One 12 2 28 30 22 Two Three Four Five

William Anderson

Validity
The method chosen (Chi-Squared Test for Independence) was the correct process to use because none of the expected frequencies were less than one, less than 20% of the expected frequencies were between one and five, and at least 80% of the expected frequencies were five or higher. Also, the process to select students may have overrepresented the AP level students or the IB students. There are only three senior AP classes and two IB classes, but two classes from each category were chosen. A higher percentage of the total number of AP and IB classes were surveyed, while only one class for each of these levels should have been surveyed to create an equal amount of representation. Another limitation deals with the fact that the number of males was only 70% of the number of females. This assessment would have been more valid if the surveying was stratified and the number of males was equal to the number of females. The assessments conclusions are limited to seniors at Walter Hines Page High School that do not plan to take the SAT any more times. Therefore, these conclusions were unable to be applied to a large population and may have lacked ecological validity. While this Internal Assessment had limitations, it had its validities as well. The classrooms were chosen randomly and the survey did not have a bias in it. It was straightforward and not confusing for a participant. Additionally, although the conclusions are limited to seniors at Walter Hines Page High school, the results are able to be able to this high school so there is validity in the true application.

William Anderson

Appendices
I.

Circle Your Grade:

10

11

12

Circle Your Gender:

Male

Female

How many times have you taken the SAT?

Do you plan to take the SAT any more times?

Yes

No

II.
Participant # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Gender Female Female Female Female Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Female Female Female Female Female Female Female Male Female Female Female # of Times taking SAT 1 3 1 2 2 2 3 2 2 3 2 3 2 3 5 4 2 3 2 3 3 2 1 3 8

William Anderson 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Male Male Male Female Female Female Male Female Female Female Female Female Female Female Male Male Male Male Female Female Male Male Female Female Female Male Female Female Female Female Female Male Female Male Male Male Female Female Female Male Female 4 4 4 3 2 1 2 4 4 2 3 3 1 2 2 3 3 4 2 2 1 3 2 2 1 2 3 2 3 1 2 1 4 2 3 2 3 3 1 1 1 9

William Anderson 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 Male Female Female Female Female Female Female Female Female Female Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Female Female Female Male 1 4 3 4 1 2 2 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 1 1 4 3 3 1

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