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normal distribution

Forums › Ask ACCA Tutor Forums › Ask the Tutor ACCA MA – FIA FMA › normal distribution

  • This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by John Moffat.
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  • Author
    Posts
  • October 9, 2021 at 8:23 am #637288
    johnbriane
    Member
    • Topics: 170
    • Replies: 160
    • ☆☆☆

    sir this is a question from the acca site

    the percentage probability that a student will score more than 90%in an accounting exam is 2.28%.
    the marks scored from the accounting exam follow a standard normal distribution with a mean mark of 70%.
    what is the standard deviation for the distribution ?

    so

    the answer is

    the probability that a students mark is more than 90% is 2.28%
    using the standard normal distribution table , work backwards to find
    the z score .

    Z = 0.50 – 0.0228 = 0.4772
    so from the table = 2

    z score = x – the mean / standard deviation

    2 = 90 – 70 / std dev

    so the answer is 10 which is the standard deviation .

    dear sir
    according to my knowledge and as per what i learnt
    It is simply a measure of the average spread of the distribution.
    The lower the standard deviation then the less the spread is (if it is 0 then there is no
    spread at all). The higher the standard deviation then the more the spread.

    For example, suppose a data set has just two observations: 10 and 30. The
    mean here is 20 and the standard deviation will be 10 as both observations are
    10 units away from the mean.

    so sir the problem i have is

    in the above question the standard deviation was 10
    but i cannot really understand what is the use of knowing this figure 10 ..

    because the mean is 70
    and then standard deviation is 10
    is it something to do with knowing the below

    “10 lower than 70 is 60 and 10 higher than 70 is 80”

    sir i did watch the lectures and i do calculations very good but the theoratical part is lacking in me

    October 9, 2021 at 2:03 pm #637344
    John Moffat
    Keymaster
    • Topics: 57
    • Replies: 54675
    • ☆☆☆☆☆

    The probability of being between the mean and 90% (which in this case is 47.72% or 0.4772) depends on how big the spread of the distribution is. If the spread is very small then the probability of being between the mean and 90% will be very high. If the spread is very large the the probability of being between the mean and 90% will be lower.

    Since the standard deviation is measuring the spread, we look at the distance from the mean in numbers of standard deviations – i.e. the z-score.

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