Distributions

Question 1

What are the characteristics of a normal distribution?

Answer 1

• Bell shaped
• Symmetrical (around the mean)
• Mean, median and mode all at the same mid point

Question 2

What is a skewed distribution?

Answer 2

• “Skewed” = distorted
• What distorts the distribution is more people getting low or high values - so the data is not symmetrical - this results in the bulk of scores being on one side and a long tail on the other side

Question 3

What is a negative skew?

Answer 3

• A negative skew would result from a very easy test where a lot of people did well and the rarer few did badly
• But their very low scores would drag down the mean

Question 4

What does the distribution of a negative skew look like?

Answer 4

Google XD

Question 5

What does the distribution of a positive skew look like?

Answer 5

Google XD

Question 6

What is a positive skew?

Answer 6

• A positive skew would result from a very difficult test where a lot of people did relatively badly and the rarer few did very well
• But their very high scores would drag up the mean