Sticky Stats Situation

[BeastfromthEast]

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I just took a test in stats. However, for two of the questions, I put in the right answer but was marked off for both of them (I could've got a 100 but instead got a B). One of the questions was: ANOVA is based on comparing which of the following. The answer I put in was means (which is what it said in the book and in the notes for the supplementary lab for the class), but the teacher said that because he said variance in class, he won't count means right.

Also, for another of the questions, the t test showed that there was no significant difference between two groups. The question asked: what can you conclude. I put the answer as "no conclusion can be made" because in stats you CANNOT accept the null hypothesis. However, it was marked wrong for the same reason as the above question.

I think he said that because my friends and I tend to talk a lot in class and goof off, but a right answer is a right answer. What should I do about this?

 

[theseeker4]

I just took a test in stats. However, for two of the questions, I put in the right answer but was marked off for both of them (I could've got a 100 but instead got a B). One of the questions was: ANOVA is based on comparing which of the following. The answer I put in was means (which is what it said in the book and in the notes for the supplementary lab for the class), but the teacher said that because he said variance in class, he won't count means right.

Also, for another of the questions, the t test showed that there was no significant difference between two groups. The question asked: what can you conclude. I put the answer as "no conclusion can be made" because in stats you CANNOT accept the null hypothesis. However, it was marked wrong for the same reason as the above question.

I think he said that because my friends and I tend to talk a lot in class and goof off, but a right answer is a right answer. What should I do about this?

Take the B on the test as a warning to stop goofing off in class and being disruptive?

 

[blizzah]

Anova stands for.....analysis of variance

Non significant T-tests can still be very significant in terms of making conclusions.

 

[BeastfromthEast]

Anova stands for.....analysis of variance

Non significant T-tests can still be very significant in terms of making conclusions.

the notes for the lab say: "ANOVA is the statistical procedure for testing the difference among the means of several groups."

i agree i should stop goofing off, but the TA admitted my answers were technically right.

 

[kduck]

the notes for the lab say: "ANOVA is the statistical procedure for testing the difference among the means of several groups."

i agree i should stop goofing off, but the TA admitted my answers were technically right.

If the prof said variance in class, he said variance. As previously pointed out, ANOVA stands for analysis of variance. If your lab notes were wrong, that sucks, but your answer is wrong.

 

[418865]

"no conclusion can be made": umm...I think you can reject OR fail to reject the null. So, I don't see why you can't make a 'conclusion'. So, I don't think it's unfair to take points off for that question. If no significance was found, that simply means you fail to reject null hypothesis (you can write the next sentence in various ways..but actually what you wrote in the first sentence of that paragraph is the correct answer instead of saying "no conclusion can be made")

 

[Sephiroth]

were these multiple choice questions? and if so, what were the other choices?

 

[BeastfromthEast]

"no conclusion can be made": umm...I think you can reject OR fail to reject the null. So, I don't see why you can't make a 'conclusion'. So, I don't think it's unfair to take points off for that question. If no significance was found, that simply means you fail to reject null hypothesis (you can write the next sentence in various ways..but actually what you wrote in the first sentence of that paragraph is the correct answer instead of saying "no conclusion can be made")

well the other choice, which was the right answer, was "speaking to an expert vs. a peer has no effect on problem solving" which i think is accepting the null.

im not justifying my behavior in class, it's just that i think i deserve to get some points back, and the book and lab notes both support what i wrote as the answer for the questions about anova.

 

[Ormm]

Anova stands for.....analysis of variance

Non significant T-tests can still be very significant in terms of making conclusions.

This.

 

[BeastfromthEast]

This.

The definition in the book is "a statistical technique for testing for the differences in the means of several groups." So yes I can see variance as being the answer, but I still think means is the better answer. Not trying to argue or anything its just my opinion.

 

[Sephiroth]

well the other choice, which was the right answer, was "speaking to an expert vs. a peer has no effect on problem solving" which i think is accepting the null.

im not justifying my behavior in class, it's just that i think i deserve to get some points back, and the book and lab notes both support what i wrote as the answer for the questions about anova.

So the t-test just had a p-value greater than .05? unless the p-value was really high, I'd say you were right. Just because a t-test failed doesn't mean you accept the null hypothesis. The fact that you were doing a t-test means it was a sample and not the whole population, so it's possible that a larger sample would produce a statistically significant difference. Dunno what gives there

 

[Camy99]

The definition in the book is "a statistical technique for testing for the differences in the means of several groups." So yes I can see variance as being the answer, but I still think means is the better answer. Not trying to argue or anything its just my opinion.

Definition of variance IS differences in means. So variance is the right answer. You saw the word mean and memorized that without the rest of the sentence which was defining another word.

 

[BeastfromthEast]

Definition of variance IS differences in means. So variance is the right answer. You saw the word mean and memorized that without the rest of the sentence which was defining another word.

Ah I see. My bad. What about the other question though?

 

[LizzyM]

Ah I see. My bad. What about the other question though?

When there is no statistically signficant difference, the conclusion that can be drawn is that you cannot reject the null hypothesis. If there had been a statistically significant difference you could reject the null hypothesis.