****Leaving Certificate: Higher Level Maths Discussion****

MathsManiac

Failing to state the null hypothesis clearly is different from having it wrong.

If your work shows that you have the right null hypothesis, but you haven't stated it clearly, then I would guess that the penalty might be mild. But if you have the wrong null hypothesis (i.e., if you confuse the null and alternative hypotheses,) then I would expect that a more severe penalty would apply, because, as lostatsea has said, it matters in a most fundamental way, and having it wrong would therefore indicate a misunderstand of a critical aspect of the whole business of hypothesis testing.

chatterboxxx95

lostatsea wrote: »

Your teacher was wrong. It matters at the most fundamental level.

Let us say my company develops a new drug. If it is not better than the existing drug I keep my head down and say nothing.

If, after testing, we find it is better, we make that claim. The null hypothesis accepts the status quo (i.e. the present drug is better and the new drug is less effective). This is the null hypothesis.

The hypothesis test is based on this assumption. If the test (based on the 95% significance test) shows this not to be true, then you reject the null hypothesis and accept the claims of the company that their drug is more successful.

This is basic, straight forward statistical analysis which teachers should be drumming into their students.

To be fair my teacher wasn't the best, that is what she told us but I understand now why it's wrong... this is where I start to get annoyed though when teachers don't seem to be fully aware of what they are or supposed to be teaching us hopefully the penalties won't be too large for that mistake anyway if enough students made it.

lostatsea

MathsManiac wrote: »

Failing to state the null hypothesis clearly is different from having it wrong.

If your work shows that you have the right null hypothesis, but you haven't stated it clearly, then I would guess that the penalty might be mild. But if you have the wrong null hypothesis (i.e., if you confuse the null and alternative hypotheses,) then I would expect that a more severe penalty would apply, because, as lostatsea has said, it matters in a most fundamental way, and having it wrong would therefore indicate a misunderstand of a critical aspect of the whole business of hypothesis testing.

Unfortunately, misunderstanding it in part (a) carried over into part B. Students now assumed drug B was a successful drug which meant that the maximum number of successful tests was the entire sample, i.e. all 500!

Teachm

Aidanmull wrote: »

Hey
i just made an account because i'm wondering is something going to be done about this... i dunno if this is right category

Anyway, In The english version of paper 1 we were asked to find 'a' in question 6 part B, in the irish version of the paper however they were asked to find 'x' for the same question..
Did anyone else notice this? has anything been said about this?

Heard it on the radio last week.state exam commission will take it into account

Ompala

MathsManiac wrote: »

Failing to state the null hypothesis clearly is different from having it wrong.

If your work shows that you have the right null hypothesis, but you haven't stated it clearly, then I would guess that the penalty might be mild. But if you have the wrong null hypothesis (i.e., if you confuse the null and alternative hypotheses,) then I would expect that a more severe penalty would apply, because, as lostatsea has said, it matters in a most fundamental way, and having it wrong would therefore indicate a misunderstand of a critical aspect of the whole business of hypothesis testing.

lostatsea wrote: »

Unfortunately, misunderstanding it in part (a) carried over into part B. Students now assumed drug B was a successful drug which meant that the maximum number of successful tests was the entire sample, i.e. all 500!

Having said all of that, remember that project maths marking scheme are extremely lenient, so I would not worry about it that much