Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
In a made-up fitness test, each runner's time for 1 km is recorded as the number of seconds over 4 minutes. These recorded values have a mean of 70 s and a standard deviation of 6 s. Find the z-score of a runner who records 85 and of a runner who records 61. Which runner was faster than average?
A z-score counts standard deviations from the mean and has no units. For mound-shaped data about , and lie within 1, 2 and 3 SDs.
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Step 1. The first runner. .
Step 2. The second runner. .
Answer: and . The second runner, with the negative z-score, was faster than average, by SDs.
Check. The first runner's time is 15 s above the mean, which is times the SD of 6 s.
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