Welcome to the first exercise! The following five questions can be worked through using the LSYPE 15,000 dataset . We recommend that you answer them in full sentences with supporting tables or graphs where appropriate – this will help when you come to report your own research. There is a link to the answers at the bottom of the page.

Note: The variable names as they appear in the SPSS dataset are listed in brackets.

Question 1

What percentage of students in the LSYPE dataset come from a household which has a home computer (computer)?

Use frequencies.

Question 2

Let’s say you are interested in the relationship between achievement in exams at age 16 and computer ownership. Create a graph which compares those who own a computer to those who do not (computer) with regard to their average age 16 exam score (ks4score).

Use a bar chart.

Question 3

Is the difference between the average age 16 exam scores (ks4score) for those who do and do not own a computer (computer) statistically significant?

Use a T-test.

Question 4

Let’s look at the relationship between social-economic class (secshort) and achievement in exams at age 16. Is there a difference between the three SEC groups (high, medium and low SEC) with regard to their average achievement in age 16 exams (ks4score)? If so which groups differ significantly?

Perform a oneway ANOVA with Scheffe post-hoc tests.

Question 5

Create an error bar graph which illustrates the difference between SEC groups (secshort) with regard to their average achievement in age 16 exams (ks4score).

Use an error bar chart.

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