Summary of Comparing Quantitative Distributions

Monitoring Your Readiness

To effectively plan and use your time wisely, it helps to think about what you know and do not know. For each of the following, rate how confident you are that you can successfully do that skill. Use the following descriptions to rate yourself:

5—I am extremely confident I can do this task.

4—I am somewhat confident I can do this task.

3—I am not sure how confident I am.

2—I am not very confident I can do this task.

1—I am definitely not confident I can do this task.

Skills Needed for Comparing Quantitative Distributions: Forming Connections

Skill or Concept: I can . . . Questions to check your understanding Rating from 1 to 5
Use technology to create a histogram or dotplot. 1, 4
Compare centers of distributions of a quantitative variable. 2
Compare spread in distributions of a quantitative variable. 3, 6
Describe the shape of the distribution of a quantitative variable. 1, 4
Determine the presence of outliers in the distribution of a quantitative variable. 5

Now use the ratings to get ready for your next in-class activity. If your rating is a 3 or below, you should get help with the material before class. Remember, your instructor is going to assume that you are confident with the material and will not take class time to answer questions about it.

Ways to get help:

  • See your instructor before class for help.
  • Ask your instructor for on-campus resources.
  • Set up a study group with classmates so you can help each other.
  • Work with a tutor.

Essential Concepts

  • When describing and summarizing data, the shape of a distribution will need to be frequently described and compared to the center and spread of the distribution of a quantitative variable. The determination of the presence of outliers will also be helpful in summarizing the data.

Study Tips: Evidence-based strategies for learning

  • Test your skill with the data analysis tool by creating stacked histograms  to compare several groups in the data sets from this section by memory. What do you know well about the process? What part is still challenging? (Retrieval practice and Reflect)
  • Re-read the What to Know text and questions. Pause after each section of the page to hand-write concise notes from memory of what you read. Read again to compare your notes for accuracy. It’s important not to write too much; the idea is to summarize and synthesize rather than copy the text into your notes. (Read, Pause, Write).

Foundational Knowledge

Glossary

observational units
individuals or items whose characteristics we are interested in.
variables
the characteristics we record on the observational units. These may be quantitative or categorical variables.

 

My Skills Checklist:

  • I can use histograms and dotplots to compare distributions of a quantitative variable across groups.
  • I can compare the center, shape, and spread of distributions of a quantitative variable across groups.

Check mark list on clipboard

Topic Complete – now test your understanding in the Self-Check.