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The 𝑧-score or standard score
Mathematics as a Tool
Data Management 04
(Measures of Relative Position)
EXERCISES
1. A group of friends compares what they received while trick or
treating. They find that the average number of pieces of candy
received is 43, with a standard deviation of 2.
a. What is the z-score corresponding to 20 pieces of candy?
b. If the z-score of the number of pieces of candy that Zia received is 6, how
many pieces of candy did she receive while trick or treating?
2. Which of the following test scores is the highest relative score?
a. A score of 65 on a test with a mean of 72 and s = 8.2
b. A score of 102 on a test with a mean of 130 and s = 18.5
c. A score of 605 on a test with a mean of 720 and s = 116.4
The 𝒛-score for a given data value 𝑥 is the number of standard
deviations that 𝑥 is above or below the mean of the data.
For data from a population: 𝑧 =
For data from a sample: 𝑧 =
̅
Note: The value of the 𝑧-score tells where a score is located relative to all the other
scores in the given data.
3. Answer the following.
a. The population 3, 4, 9, 14, and 20 has a mean of 10 and a standard
deviation of 6.356. The 𝑧-scores of each of the five data values are
𝑧 ≈ −1.101, 𝑧 ≈ −0.944, 𝑧 ≈ −0.157, 𝑧 ≈ 0.629, and 𝑧 ≈ 1.573.
Find the mean and standard deviation of these 𝑧-scores.
b. The population 2, 6, 12, 17, 22, and 25 has a mean of 14 and a standard
deviation of 8.226. The 𝑧 –scores of each of the six data values are
𝑧 ≈ −1.459, 𝑧 ≈ −0.973, 𝑧 ≈ −0.243, 𝑧 ≈ 0.365, 𝑧 ≈ 0.973, and
𝑧 ≈ 1.337. Find the mean and the standard deviation of these 𝑧-scores.
c. From (a) and (b), make a conjecture about the mean and standard
deviation of the 𝑧-scores for any set of population data. Can you explain
why this should be always true?
𝑝th Percentile
• A value 𝑥 is called the 𝒑th percentile of a data set provided 𝑝% of the
data values are less than 𝑥.
• Percentile of score 𝑥 = 100
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ILLUSTRATION: Wage percentiles of

EXERCISES
commercial pilots (US Bureau of Labor)
1. During a Grade 10 mathematics achievement test, Brad’s score of 250 was
higher than the scores of 7255 of the 9430 students who took the exam. Find
the percentile for Brad’s score. (Round off to the nearest integer.)

2. Data on the height of 2480 students in a public high school revealed that
Harriet’s height of 146 cm was at the 45th percentile of the data. How many
students in the public high school were taller than Harriet?

3. The median annual salary for travel agents is P300,000. If the 80th percentile for
the annual salary of a travel agent is P500,000, find the percent of travel agents
whose annual salaries were
a. Less than P300,000.
b. More than P500,000.
c. Between P300,000 and P500,000.

https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2015/images/wage-diff_illustration.jpg

Quartiles Computing for the Quartiles

(Moore and McCabe Method)*
• Quartiles are values that divide a data set into four equal parts. These Let n be the number of observations in a data set arranged in
values, denoted by Q1, Q2, and Q3 are such that approximately ascending order
• If n is even,
• 25% of the data fall below the 1st quartile, Q1 • Q2 = median
• 50% of the data fall below the 2nd quartile, Q2 • Q1 = median of the first half
• 75% of the data fall below the 3rd quartile, Q3 • Q3 = median of the second half
• If n is odd,
• Q2 = median
• Q1 = median of the data values before the median
• Q3 = median of the data values after the median

* Different method from the textbook ILLUSTRATION

EXERCISE EXERCISES
• Find the quartile values of the following data set. • Find the quartile values of the following data sets in array.
1. 0.6 0.6 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.5
1.7 1.9 2.0 2.2 2.5 3.2 4.1
Q1 = 11.8
Q2 = 18.35
Q3 = 24.6 2. 54 54 78 79 79 80 82
83 83 83 83 84 86 88
88 88 88 92 93 97 98
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Box Plot Creating a Box Plot*

Q2
• A box plot (or box-and-whisker or median
1. Draw a box whose respective left and right edges are Q1 and Q3.
Q1 Q3
plot) is a visual summary that outliers 2. Draw a vertical line inside the box to show the location of the median.
displays information about a data 3. Determine the interquartile range, IQR
set’s center and distribution. IQR = Q3 – Q1
“whisker” “whisker”
4. Determine
Q1 = 11.8
Q2 = 18.35 lower limit: Q1 – 1.5(IQR)
Q3 = 24.6 upper limit: Q3 + 1.5(IQR)
50% of the
data lie here
Note: All values less than the lower limit and greater than the upper limit are
non-outliers identified as outliers.

* Different convention from the textbook

Creating a Box Plot EXERCISES

5. From the box, draw two horizontal lines to the farthest data points • Create the box plot of the following data values.
which are not outliers. These are the whiskers.
1. 0.6 0.6 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.5 Q1 = 1.1
Q2 = 1.6
6. Represent all outliers using dots. If two outliers have the same 1.7 1.9 2.0 2.2 2.5 3.2 4.1 Q3 = 2.2
value, draw the dots one above the other.

2. 54 54 78 79 79 80 82 Q1 = 79.5
Q2 = 83
83 83 83 83 84 86 88 Q3 = 88
88 88 88 92 93 97 98
Textbook exercises you can work on
independently: Exercise Set 4.3, pp. 129 -131

Interpreting Box Plots EXERCISE

Precipitation (in inches) experienced in Dallas and in Houston each month

(in %)
a. For how many months is Houston’s precipitation less than 3.5 inches?
Is it accurate to say that more students are graduating from secondary schools than b. Compare the precipitation in Dallas with the precipitation in Houston.
from elementary schools? Why or why not? https://www.isd2144.org/cms/lib/MN02205235/Centricity/Domain/208/chap13-8.pdf