Upon completing their respective homework assignments, marketing majors and accounting majors at a large state university enjoy hanging out at the local tavern in the evenings. The file S04_27.xlsx contains the distribution of number of hours spent by these students at the tavern in a typical week, along with typical cumulative grade-point averages (on a 4-point scale) for marketing and accounting students with similar social habits.
a. Compare the means and standard deviations of the grade-point averages of the two groups of students. Does one of the two groups consistently perform better academically than the other? Explain.
b. Does academic performance, as measured by cumulative GPA, seem to be associated with the amount of time students typically spend at the local tavern? If so, characterize the observed relationship.
c. Find the covariance and correlation between the typical grade-point averages earned by the two subgroups of students. What do these measures of association indicate in this case?