A Little Statistics

Not too sure why so many people get scared when they hear the word statistics. It is all around us. Most of the time it is being misused. Like the famous "Bell Shape Curve" and the SAT tests for college admissions.

In fact the Curve was so misused in the 1960's that it eventually got replaced by the "box-whisker". The box-whisker is how the PSAT, SAT and college admissions office report their statistics these days.

The BW (box-whisker) gives you 5 pieces of information:
1. lowest score
2. the first quartile which is the bottom 25% of the population
3. the medium which is the middle grade
4. the third quartile which is the top 25% (or the bottom 75% if you prefer)
5. highest score

people in general understand this kind of ranking better than the Curve.

An example of the the BW would be looking at the SAT scores of an incoming freshman class, a college might report a medium of 1,000 (the middle score of the incoming freshman class at this particular school is 1,000 usually something close to 500 on the verbal and 500 on the math)

the bottom 25% might score only 800 or lower and the top 25% might score 1200 or higher.

Now remember when looking at any Stat...there are liars, there are dam good liars and then there are statisticians.

Many colleges including the State schools in Florida will do not count "special students" in their stats...this might be students where English is a second language or the football team. Most colleges also do not include students who are required to go to summer school before being admitted in the Fall.

This is ok and common practice as long all schools do it and the public is aware of it. Now YOU are !!

Also remember that the SAT's were "re-center" in the mid 1990's...the national average had dipped down to only 800....so they added 200 pts to bring it back to 1000. Your parents SAT scores do not have the same meaning as your SAT scores. I will discuss more on this in my next blog on the SAT's and its history.