Suppose someone wants to know about college student performance on the final exam for MA235. They are given the exam scores for students in my MA235 classes from last quarter.

Question

(a) In this situation, what are each of the following?

1.) population

2.) units

3.) sample

4.) characteristics

(b) Would the average exam score of the students from my classes last quarter be considered a parameter or a statistic?

Answer 1

A)

1.) What is the student looking to find? "...college student performance on the final exam for MA235". So your population is all college students who have ever taken MA235.

2.) Who is being looked at? The students in the population.

3.) What sample is provided? "They are given the exam scores for students in my MA235 classes from last quarter." So the sample is students who took the MA235 classes in the last quarter.

4.) What specific detail is being looked into? They want to know student performance in the class, so this can be identified by the exam scores of the students.

B)

Does the exam scores of the students from last quarter represent all students who ever took MA235? Unless this is the first time the course has been taught, no. So since this average applies to the sample instead of the population, it is considered a statistic.