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Josh Woods

Professor Bodrero

Math 2040

Influences on Student’s GPAs

What has the greatest influence on college student’s GPA’s? This subject is important to

determine the factors that contribute most to a student’s success in school. If the most

important factors to a student’s success can be determined, then schools can focus their efforts

to instill these factors onto their students. These factors can then go on to help the schools

have a better success rate of college graduates. It is important to have a strong success rate of

college graduates, because of the need and benefit for college graduates in today’s economy. In

Holiday Hart McKeirnan’s article, “Higher Education and the American Workforce,” the author

states that, “Without college-level learning, American workers simply won’t have the

knowledge and skills they need to succeed in today’s global economy.” This shows the

importance of college graduates, and why it is important to determine what contributes most

to the graduation of a college student.

In this study, the relationship of different factors of college schooling and student’s

GPAs will be analyzed. This study will focus on the relationship of studying for exams and GPA,

and the relationship of how often a student visits the library to study and GPA. This study will

be using Snow College as its source of samples, 38 randomly selected students from Snow

College. The data for this study was collected by a survey administered to students who walked

into Snow College’s cafeteria, the Badger Den. The Badger Den is accessible to all students on

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campus, and this means the data is from all types of students on campus. The data from the

sample of 38 randomly selected Snow College students is what will be used to help determine

whether exam study time and library visits are beneficial to a college student’s success. The

results from this study cannot be used for inference of all college students or even all Snow

College students, because of the small sample size. What this study is designed to do, is help

encourage or discourage further advanced research into whether exam study time or library

visits are key factors in a student’s success. Snow College will be tested to see if it is a viable

college to conduct further advanced research. Also, exam study time and library visits will be

tested to see if further research is worth doing on these factors.

One of the first assumptions that is made about this study is that student success is

measured by GPA. This is not necessarily the only way to measure a student’s success, but is

the one used in this study. The next assumption that is made is that exam study time refers to

the average time in hours that a student studies for any one of their exams per week. In the

survey, it was not stated that the exam study time was per week, but it was implied. The next

assumption is that when the exam study time is being compared to Snow Colleges claim that

students should study for classes for two hours for every one hour in class, that the mean of the

sample can be compared to just two hours. This is assumed because the survey asked for the

time the student studies for just one exam, and the claim talks about the study time for just one

class. Study time for exams is also assumed to be interchangeable with study time for the class,

because exams are part of the class.

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0 2 4 6 8 10 120

0.51

1.52

2.53

3.54

4.5

Exam Study Time and GPA

Exam Study Time Per Week (Hours)

GPA

This is a scatterplot of the sample’s GPAs and exam study time per week. This

scatterplot also has a regression line, which helps determine the correlation between the

student’s GPAs and the time spent studying for exams each week. The data looks to have a

positive linear correlation. When the r value is calculated using the LinReg calculator function,

you get .326. This shows us that there is a positive linear correlation between student’s GPAs

and the amount of time they spend studying for their exams. Since the r value is only .326

though, there is not that strong of a positive linear correlation. This scatterplot with regression

line is important to this study, because it shows us the positive relationship between student’s

GPAs and the amount of time they spend per week studying for exams.

The next thing that this study tests, is if Snow College is a viable college to conduct

further advanced research on this matter. We did this by first doing a confidence interval on the

exam study time per week from the sample. This confidence interval helped determine the

predicted population exam study time per week based on our samples. This confidence interval

will be using a 95% level of confidence.

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Calculator Function-> TInterval (List 1(sample of 38 Snow College student’s exam study times

per week), Frequency: 1, Confidence Level: 0.95 = (2.89, 4.53)

The results show that at the 95% confidence level, we can conclude that the true the

population mean for exam study time per week is between 2.89 hours and 4.53 hours. This

seems to exceed the expectations on Snow College’s website of how much students should be

studying for each class per week, “study a minimum of two hours outside of class for every hour

spent in class.” (snow.edu) To test if the sample mean was indeed greater than the expected

mean of two hours, a T-Test with a level of significance of 0.05 was done.

Calculator Function-> T-Test (mu=2, List 1(Sample of 38 Snow College student’s exam study

times per week), Frequency: 1, mu>2) -> P-value= 0.000074 < level of significance of 0.05,

Reject the Null Hypothesis that mu=2

At the 5% level of significance, we had enough evidence to conclude that the true

population mean of exam study time per week was greater than two hours. Based on the

sample, this shows us that students here at Snow College are studying more than what is

expected for each class per week. Although, it must be remembered that with this size of

sample, the sample should not be used to conclude for the entire population of students at

Snow College. The results simply help show that Snow College could be a good college for

further advanced research, because of the higher than expected average study times from the

sample of 38 Snow College students.

The next thing that this study covers is if the average GPAs of Snow College students are

greater than the national average of two-year public colleges. Gradeinflation.com indicates that

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the average GPA of two-year public colleges is 2.75. The test will be using a level of significance

that is 0.05.

Calculator Function-> T Test (mu=2.75, List: L1(sample of 38 Snow College student’s GPAs),

Frequency: 1, mu>2.75)-> P-value=0.000000067 < 0.05, Reject Null Hypothesis that mu=2.75

At the 5% level of significance, we had enough evidence to conclude that the average GPA of

Snow College students was greater than the average GPA of students at two-year public

colleges. The sample indicates that students at Snow College are getting better than average

grades. Again, this conclusion only indicates that Snow College could be a good college for

further advanced research into exam study times and library visits.

Based on our sample, exam study times per week has a positive linear correlation with

GPAs. This correlation is based on the scatterplot, regression line, and r value of the sample. It

was concluded that the population average exam study time per week for Snow College

students was greater than the expected study time of two hours outside of class for every one

hour in class. It was also concluded that the average GPA of Snow College students was greater

than the average GPA of two-year public colleges. All of these conclusions should not be used

to conclude for the entire population of Snow College, because of the small sample size. The

scatterplot and positive linear correlation indicates possible further advanced research into if

exam study time is a factor in a student’s success. The confidence interval and hypothesis test

help indicate that Snow College is possibly a good college to conduct further advanced research

on these factors. These tests and conclusions about Snow College possibly being a good college

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for further advanced research, are based entirely on the sample means of exam study time and

GPA being above average of the expected averages.

0 2 4 6 8 10 120

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Library Visits and GPA

Library visits per week

GPA

The next part of this study is to see if the amount of times a student goes to the library to study,

is a factor in the success of that student. This scatterplot and regression line helps give a visual

representation of the relationship between library visits and GPA. When we calculated the r

value, using the LinReg function on the calculator, we got a value of 0.08. This shows that there

is positive linear correlation between library visits and GPA. The r value is very small though, so

the positive linear correlation is not very strong at all. To test if there is enough evidence to

conclude that there is a positive linear correlation between library visits and GPA, a LinRegTTest

was performed. The level of significance that was used was 0.05.

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Calculator Function-> LinRegTTest (X List (sample of 38 Snow College student’s library visits),

Y List (sample of 38 Snow College student’s GPAs), Frequency: 1, rho>0) -> P-value=

0.32>0.05, Fail to reject Null Hypothesis of rho=0

At the 5% level of significance, we did not have enough evidence to conclude that there

was a positive linear correlation between library visits and GPA. This means that based on our

sample, we do not know if there is positive linear correlation between how many times Snow

College students visit the library per week to study and Snow College student’s GPAs. In order

to be able to use this conclusion for all of Snow College students, we need a larger sample size.

With a larger sample size, we also might be able to have enough evidence to conclude that

there is a positive linear correlation between library visits and GPA.

In discussion, this study was done entirely to help encourage or discourage the need for

more advanced research into factors that could help college students become more successful

in school. The factors that were examined in this study were exam study time and library visits.

Based on the conclusions in this study, more research should be done on exam study time and

library visits. This study also concludes that further advanced research should be done at Snow

College, because of the results of Snow College being above average in both average study time

and average GPA. With a larger sample size, a conclusion about the entire population of Snow

College could be made about the effectiveness of exam study times and library visits to a

student’s success. This further advanced research could then lead to similar studies at more

colleges. Eventually, a clear conclusion about the relationship between student’s success, exam

study time, and library visits could be made about all college students. This advanced research

could help colleges either focus more effort and money on helping students learn the

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importance of exam study time and library visits, or help colleges to focus their efforts and

money elsewhere. With colleges knowing where to focus their efforts and money more

effectively, student graduation rates should increase. This could then help the economy grow

stronger as there could be more college graduates entering the work force.

In conclusion, this study should not be used to conclude that exam study time and

library visits are beneficial to student’s success and graduation. Instead, this study should be

used to show professional researchers that it may be worth further advanced research into

exam study time and library visits, because of the benefits to college studetns. The reason that

further advanced research should be done is because of the conclusions that were outlined in

this study by the sample size of 38 randomly selected students at Snow College. With more

advanced research done by professional researchers into these two factors, college student

success and graduation rates could be increased as colleges could better understand where to

focus their efforts and money.

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Resources

Data:

Gender Year Exam

Study

Time

per

Week

GPA Library

Visits

per

week

F 1 2 3.8 0

M 1 7 3.5 3

M 1 5.5 3.8 9

O 2 6 3.7 3

M 1 5 3.87 1

F 3 5 3.5 4

M 1 3 3.95 1

M 2 6 3.8 10

M 1 5 4 5

M 2 6 3.6 1

F 2 0 3.4 0

M 2 5 2.75 4

F 1 2 3.5 0

F 1 5 3.8 0

F 2 2 2.5 0

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M 1 1 2 0

M 1 10 4 5

M 1 1 3.5 1

F 1 5 2.3 5

F 1 0 3.7 0

F 1 2 4 0

F 1 2 3.5 10

F 1 5 3.5 5

M 2 3 3.4 1

O 1 2 3.5 1

M 2 3 3.25 1

F 1 5 2.7 7

F 1 0 2.9 0

M 1 1 3 4

F 2 2 3.9 0

F 3 8 3.5 5

M 1 2 3 2

M 1 2.5 2 2

M 2 7 3.5 0

F 3 8 3.52 6

M 1 1 2.5 1

M 1 2 2.7 3

F 1 4 3.4 2

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Survey:

This is a survey for statistics 2040 that will help Josh Woods determine the study habits of

students here at Snow College. Your participation in this survey is completely voluntary, and all

data will only be used in complete confidentiality. This survey will consist of 5 questions and will

take approximately 2-3 minutes to complete. There are no foreseeable risks involved with

taking this survey. By responding to this survey, you are indicating that you are willing to

participate in this study. If you have any questions are concerns, please contact Josh Woods by

email at joshthescubadude@gmail.com.

1. What is your gender? ____ Male ____ Female ____ Other

2. What year are you currently in, here at Snow College?

____First year ____Second Year ____More than Two Years

3. On average, how many hours do you spend studying for your exams? ______

4. What is your current college GPA? Note, first semester students can estimate their GPA

based on the grades they currently have in their classes. ______

5. How many times a week do you go to the library to study? ______

Works Cited

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McKiernan, By Holiday Hart. "Higher Education and the American Workforce." AGB. N.p., 2016.

Web. 08 Nov. 2016.

https://www.snow.edu/catalog/registration.html

gradeinflation.com