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    What Is A Z Score PDF

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    randy_27995
    Z scores represent values in a standard normal distribution with a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1, allowing comparison of items from different distributions. They indicate the distance between an individual score and the mean in units of standard deviations. Looking up the z score in statistical tables shows what percentage of a normal distribution's total area lies above or below that value. The document provides an example calculating z scores to rank individuals' test scores within a population with a mean of 75 and standard deviation of 15.

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    What Is A Z Score PDF

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    randy_27995
    192 views2 pages
    Z scores represent values in a standard normal distribution with a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1, allowing comparison of items from different distributions. They indicate the distance between an individual score and the mean in units of standard deviations. Looking up the z score in statistical tables shows what percentage of a normal distribution's total area lies above or below that value. The document provides an example calculating z scores to rank individuals' test scores within a population with a mean of 75 and standard deviation of 15.

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    Z scores represent values in a standard normal distribution with a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1, allowing comparison of items from different distributions. They indicate the distance between an individual score and the mean in units of standard deviations. Looking up the z score in statistical tables shows what percentage of a normal distribution's total area lies above or below that value. The document provides an example calculating z scores to rank individuals' test scores within a population with a mean of 75 and standard deviation of 15.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    192 views2 pages

    What Is A Z Score PDF

    Uploaded by

    randy_27995
    Z scores represent values in a standard normal distribution with a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1, allowing comparison of items from different distributions. They indicate the distance between an individual score and the mean in units of standard deviations. Looking up the z score in statistical tables shows what percentage of a normal distribution's total area lies above or below that value. The document provides an example calculating z scores to rank individuals' test scores within a population with a mean of 75 and standard deviation of 15.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    UPDATED: What is a Z score?

    Z scores are sometimes called "standard scores". They represent what we call a
    standard distribution of values about a mean of zero (0). The z score
    transformation is especially useful when seeking to compare the relative standings of
    items from distributions with different means and/or different standard deviations.

    Z scores are especially informative when the distribution to which they refer is
    normal. In every normal distribution, the distance between the mean and a given Z
    score cuts off a fixed proportion of the total area under the curve. Statisticians have
    provided us with tables indicating the value of these proportions for each possible Z
    score (this table is on the back).

    So, to apply this, lets say that we have a population of adults that we are interested
    in with a mean score on some kind of test of 75 with a standard deviation of 15. Let
    us assume that this is a valid test and that there is a normal distribution of scores
    and people where approximately half of the scores are above the mean or below.

    Now, we want to calculate some Z values or scores for the person who scored a 45
    on the test and for someone who scored a 90 on the test. The person that scored a
    45 would have a Z = (45 75) / 15 = -2.0 If we look at the table on the opposite
    page (using just the first column for now), that means that, of this distribution, this
    persons score or ranking in the group was 47.7 percentage points below the mean
    value. Stated differently, 97.7 percent of the total area of scores was above 45 (47.7
    percent below the mean plus the 50 percent above). For a person scoring 90, the Z
    = (90 75) / 15 = 1.0. This persons position was 34.13 percentage points above
    the mean. Stated differently, 84.13 percent of the scores were below 90 and 15.87
    percent were above.

    Z scores are important for many things, but they are, for our purposes one of the
    values that we will use for determining sample sizes.
    Table of Z scores: This table tells us how much area is above (or below, if the
    z value is negative) the mean. So, for a Z score of 1.15 we would read down to
    0.00 column to 1.1, and then read over to the .05 column: 1.1 + .05 = 1.15. The
    area under the curve is 35.31 percent. As the mean value represents the 50th
    percent score, then 50 + 35.31 percent = 85.31 percent. Interpreting, then, about
    14.7 percent of the scores were above that value, and 85.3 percent were below.
    Or you could say that score represented the 85.3rd percentile.

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