OCR MEI S3 2013 June — Question 1

Exam BoardOCR MEI
ModuleS3 (Statistics 3)
Year2013
SessionJune
TopicWilcoxon tests

1 In the past, the times for workers in a factory to complete a particular task had a known median of 7.4 minutes. Following a review, managers at the factory wish to know if the median time to complete the task has been reduced.
  1. A random sample of 12 times, in minutes, gives the following results. $$\begin{array} { l l l l l l l l l l l l } 6.90 & 7.23 & 6.54 & 7.62 & 7.04 & 7.33 & 6.74 & 6.45 & 7.81 & 7.71 & 7.50 & 6.32 \end{array}$$ Carry out an appropriate test using a \(5 \%\) level of significance.
  2. Some time later, a much larger random sample of times gives the following results. $$n = 80 \quad \sum x = 555.20 \quad \sum x ^ { 2 } = 3863.9031$$ Find a \(95 \%\) confidence interval for the true mean time for the task. Justify your choice of which distribution to use.
  3. Describe briefly one advantage and one disadvantage of having a \(99 \%\) confidence interval instead of a \(95 \%\) confidence interval.