INTRODUCTION TO

STATISTICAL CONCEPTS
 Play a very important role in measurement and
evaluation.
 Allow us to describe the performance of
our students and make proper scientific
inferences about their performances.
1. The idea of randomness
2. The mean
3. The Standard deviation
4. The Bell Shaped curve
5. The standard normal distribution
The Idea of Randomness

• central concept in statistics

Let P=population
S=sample
Example:

Students scores are assumed to be random realizations of a presumably

large number of unknown scores.

to make the idea precise,

let us consider a group of thirty (30) students whose examination scores
are:

P= {15, 20, 25, 25, 30, 35, 26, 14, 17, 18, 12, 15, 22, 27, 33, 32, 21, 18,
18, 13, 14, 21, 17, 18, 19, 23, 22, 21, 26, 31}
now, the teacher randomly selects fifteen (15)
examination scores for further analysis and obtains:

S= {20, 25, 14, 12, 33, 18, 21, 17, 22, 21, 26, 30,
32, 13, 15}

• The idea of randomness is unpredictability

The Mean
• Defined as the sum of the observation divided by the
number of observations (average of the scores)

in symbols:
Mean= Σxᵢ / n

Σ = “the sum of”

n = “number of observations”
15 25 20 25 30 35
26 14 17 18 12 15
22 27 33 32 21 18
18 13 14 21 17 18
19 23 22 21 26 31
R= H-L
= 35-12
= 23

K 𝑛
= 30
=5
𝑅
C =
𝐾
23
=
5
= 4.6 or 5
The Standard Deviation

• Is found by taking the square root of the average of

the squared difference of the values from their
average value

Sd= (Σ (x – mean)² )/n-1 (one)) Τ or

1
2

𝑋−𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛
Sd=
𝑛−1
The Bell Shaped Curve

• Also called as normal distribution

f(x) = [1/(2π) σ] exp (-.5(x - μ) ²/ σ ²

• To understand the probability factors of a normal

distribution you need to understand the following ‘rules’
•1. The total area under the curve is equal to 1 (100%)
2. About 68% of the area under the curve falls within 1
standard deviation.

3. About 95% of the area under the curve falls within 2

standard deviations.

4 About 99.7% of the area under the curve falls within 3

standard deviations.
The Standard Normal Distribution

• Is a special type of a normal distribution

• Has a mean of 0 and a Sd of 1

Standardization

• An observation is in standard units if we see how

many standard it is above or below the average. That
is, if x, μ, and σ respectively represent the
observation, it’s mean, it’s Sd, then, the standardized
form of x is

Z= (x - μ)/σ
Example

let x be normal with mean σ =25 and variance ó ² =

100. Then, the standard score of x=30 is:

Z = (30 – 35)/10= 0.5000

Standard Scores

T= 50 + 10z.

• For example, the standard T score of a student w/ a

z-score of z=1 on a test is given by T=50+10(1) =
60. also, the standard T score of a student w/ a z-
score of z=-1 is T=50+10(-1)=40
Percentile Ranks

• In NAT (National Achievement Test) the results are

reported in terms of percentile ranks rather than in
terms of raw or standard scores

Percentile Rank= (no. of students scoring below the

value) + (number of students scoring equal to the
value) / (total no. o test takers)
Example

• Suppose that 100 test takers took an examination. If

75 students scored lower than 82 and 6 students
scored exactly equal to 82, then the percentile rank of
the score equal to 82 is:

Percentile rank= (75+6)/100= 81%