Introduction to Political Research

POLS 3800
Dr. Gulcan Saglam
Calculating Z-Scores

*Show your work for each problem

1. The national average voter turnout for the 2016 Presidential election in the United States
was 61 percent with a standard deviation of 5. Georgia experienced record-breaking turnout
with 76 percent of eligible voters turning out on election day. What percentage of states had
lower turnout than Georgia?

2. Dilbert works for the Bureau of Forms. His manager has reprimanded him because she feels
that he has not performed up to the standard for processing forms at the Bureau, which is a
key part of the job. At the Bureau, the number of forms processed by employees is normally
distributed, with a mean of 67 forms per employee per day, with a standard deviation of 7.
His manager has calculated that Dilbert’s average is 50 forms processed per day. What
percentage of employees at the Bureau processed fewer forms than Dilbert? What
percentage of employees at the Bureau processed more forms than Dilbert? Does the
manager’s complaint seem justified or not?
3. The average score of the Georgia Standardized High School Examination was 77 with a
standard deviation of 8. Joyce scored 82 and Madeline scored 74. What percentage of
students scored in between Joyce and Madeline?

4. A normal distribution of scores has a standard deviation of 5. Find the z-scores

corresponding to each of the following values:

a. A score that is 10 points above the mean

b. A score that is 5 points below the mean

c. A score that is 15 points above the mean