A Science professor has observed over several years that about 15% of the students who initially major in Science drop out of the program after their freshman year.The department head suggested making the curriculum easier by taking a couple of 300 level courses out of the requirements.With the new curriculum intact,590 began their freshman year as Science majors and only 52 dropped out of the program.Should the college continue with the easier curriculum? State the critical value required to perform an appropriate hypothesis test using α = 0.01.
A)-1.645
B)-2.326
C)1.96
D)-1.96
E)1.645

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To test the effectiveness of the new curriculum, a hypothesis test for a proportion can be used. Given a significance level (α) of 0.01 for a two-tailed test, the critical value corresponds to the z-score that captures the central 99% of the normal distribution. The correct critical value for a two-tailed test at α = 0.01 is -2.326 or 2.326, but since only negative values are listed, -2.326 is the correct choice. This value is used to determine the rejection regions for the null hypothesis.

A Science Professor Has Observed Over Several Years That About