Understanding Descriptive Statistics: A college based approach in Zimbabwe
Abstract
The main focus of this paper was to describe how much, data values, spread out from one
another and how they relate to each other. Calculations of variance and standard deviation
helped describe the nature of scores recorded for classroom situations. Just like the stem and
leaf plot we saw from the box and whisker plot that the data are either negatively or
positively skewed depending on the length of whiskers to the left or right. The box and
whisker plot was used to identify some outliers, that is, values more extreme than the
whiskers. The box plot is thus useful in spotting data dispersion, screening data or singling
out potential problem data before any analysis. The scatter diagram proved more important in
trying to describe relationships between two variables measured on the same subject. This
article also looked at the two major types of correlation coefficients (Pearson and Spearman)
and their calculations. The meaning of each value was also scrutinised stemming from its
size.
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