Business Administration project update

Running head: DOES EATING BREAKFAST INCREASE TEST SCORES 1

DOES EATING BREAKFAST INCREASE TEST SCORES 11

Does Eating Breakfast Increase Test Scores

Sonja McDonald

Fayetteville State University

15 April 2016

BADM 530

Does Eating Breakfast Increase Test Scores

Executive summary

To perform better, students or learners have to be prepared well so that they may give their best in the exams. Some of the preparations that have to come in handy are to ensure that the learners are well fed in the morning or the evening based on the exam schedule. This makes them be concentrated on their studies. Hunger or distractions form the stomach are likely to make a person uncomfortable and nay hence nit perform to his or her expected reach.

The study incorporated 300 participants who helped to get insights on what it feels to be fully contented as you interact with others. The study depicted that learners who took breakfast in their setting do perform much better than the learners who are not depended on the school

Introduction

Students have been found to perform differently in the test when they are exposed to different conditions. These conditions may be physical or mental. Thus good test scores are attributed to the favorable physical or the psychological setting. For example, students' performance in tests or exams has been attributed to the psychological setting that prevails in the student. Hence for one to be able to perform very well in class, a psychological factor that has to be enhanced is the state of satisfaction after eating. It is alleged that the comfort a student obtains from eating food sets him or her ready to his brains to have a better performance capacity. This means that a hungry student is alleged to be stressful and that he or she may not fully work well thus the outcome of the activity they are doing will be of poor quality. There has been a trend that has been under investigation on whether satisfaction in the stomach has a relevant effect on the performance and thus the need to identify whether it is a status of the psychology or it is a direct influence on the brain functioning.

The research question

Does students who take breakfast increase their test scores?

The objectives of the study were to find out if there would exists any difference between the test scores of the students who took breakfast in the morning and the test scores for the students who did not take breakfast.

This would guide us in making further recommendations to parents, guardians and caretakers for students to make any changes to the way their students are prepared before they sit for their exams or attending their classes at large.

This research study employed an interdisciplinary approach to study two groups of students, the test or study group and the control group. We employed a sampling mechanism to collect data from the study group that comprised of the students' group that had a test before taking breakfast and the second group (control group) taking breakfast while noting their different test scores. In both cases, the control group will take their test after taking breakfast.

The population group that I chose for this study is a group of 300 second year college students who lived in the college. In this group 150 of the students were males and 150 were female. All these participants were living in the college hostels and were under a routine meal program at the college.

Research hypothesis

It is hypothesized that, students who take breakfast (B1) increase test scores (m) than those who do not (B0).

That is, the mean score for mB1>mBo

Discipline: Psychology

Second discipline: Dieting

Definitions

Breakfast - this is the first meal of the day for anybody or any animal, it is usually taken in the morning.

Test - Any standardized procedure for measuring sensitivity, memory, intelligence, aptitude or personality or any procedure that is standardized and used to measure intelligence, memory, sensitivity, attitude or the personality of a person.

Score - a number or letter that is used to indicate the quality of a person's or students' performance.

Methods

We identified three hundred names and randomly assigned them into two groups of one hundred and fifty students in each group. Each group had seventy-five boys and seventy-five girls. The participants were assigned identification codes 001 to 300 to ensure the maximum privacy of the students was achieved. The test group was identified with codes N001 to 150 and the control group members were identified with codes B151 to B300.

The test group was put in the test room just before they went for breakfast. The test comprised of 20 questions with a test duration of thirty minutes. They were then allowed to have their breakfast upon completion of the paper.

In the second group, the control group was given the same test in the second test room immediately after their breakfast and just before the first group (test group) was allowed to go and have either breakfast. This allowed the test handlers to ensure that the second group did not have any single chance to understand the contents or rules of the paper which would severely affect the authenticity of the results. Upon completion, the test was marked and their results in entered in excel software for analysis.

The limitations of this data collection procedure are that only one factor was considered leaving out the possibilities that other factors might compromise the findings based on the fact that the study frequency, quality of sleep and the grooming extent were not captured. This hence leaves out possible factors that could play a pivotal role in the test scores irrespective of whether an individual had breakfast or not.

The test scores of the two groups were analyzed and compared in terms of the mean, median, mode, max, min, range, and standard deviation. A comparative frequency table was also established to give out a visual appearance of the statistical metrics states above.

The results

The descriptive statistics summary of the control group was as follows: the mean was 68.98667, the median was 70, the mode was 71, the standard deviation was 9.678723, the range was 32, the minimum was 52, and the maximum score was 84.

The descriptive statics summary of the test group was as follows: the mean was 47.64, the median was 49, the mode was 52 standard deviation of 14.58706, the range was 51, the minimum was 20, and the maximum score was 71.

The comparative descriptive statistics summary for the two groups is as shown in the table below;

Description	No Breakfast	Breakfast
Mean	47.64	68.98667
Standard Error	1.191028	0.790264
Median	49	70
Mode	52	71
Standard Deviation	14.58706	9.678723
Sample Variance	212.7823	93.67767
Kurtosis	-1.05829	-1.1384
Skewness	-0.21456	-0.13289
Range	51	32
Minimum	20	52
Maximum	71	84
Sum	7146	10348
Count	150	150
Confidence Level (95.0%)	2.353488	1.561573

This it can be identified that the mean for the test group was way lower than that of the control group. The median for the test group was lower than that of the control group too. The trend was observed for the mode, the minimum value and the maximum value.

The frequency distribution table for test scores of the test group showed that the comparative frequency distribution table below shows the different spread of the test scores:

The test group frequency distribution (no breakfast) and control group frequency distribution (breakfast)

	No Breakfast	Breakfast
Class	Frequency	Cumulative %	Frequency	Cumulative %
16-20	3	2.00%	0	0.00%
21-25	10	8.67%	0	0.00%
26-30	12	16.67%	0	0.00%
31-35	12	24.67%	0	0.00%
36-40	14	34.00%	0	0.00%
41-45	14	43.33%	0	0.00%
46-50	14	52.67%	0	0.00%
51-55	19	65.33%	21	14.00%
56-60	17	76.67%	15	24.00%
61-65	14	86.00%	19	36.67%
66-70	19	98.67%	21	50.67%
71-75	2	100.00%	27	68.67%
76-80	0	100.00%	25	85.33%
81-85	0	100.00%	22	100.00%
More	0	100.00%	0	100.00%

From the comparative frequency distribution table created, there were no scores recorded for the test scores class 16-20 to 46-50 for the control group whereas 79 participants form the test group had scores between 16-20 and 46-50. Looking at the top test scores. The test group did not record any scores between 76-80 and 81-85 classes. On the other hand, 47 students from the control group had test scores recorded in this category. This data can be visually identified in the comparative bar chart as shown

Testing the hypothesis

The research hypothesis stated as “students who take breakfast (B1) increase test scores (m) that those who do not (B0)”.

That is, the mean score for mB1>mBo

A t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances was conducted and the results of the test were as follows:

t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances
	No Breakfast	Breakfast
Mean	47.64	68.98667
Variance	212.7823	93.67767
Observations	150	150
Pooled Variance	153.23
Hypothesized Mean Difference	0
df	298
t Stat	-14.9344
P(T<=t) one-tail	2.46E-38
t Critical one-tail	1.649983
P(T<=t) two-tail	4.92E-38
t Critical two-tail	1.967957

The P-value was 4.92E-38

In this case, the p-value was less than the alpha level of 0.05 and this means that the difference in the means of the two groups happens by chance.

Conclusions

Based on the trend set out through the study by the results. I t can be deduced that better performance was realized from the control group. The participants in the test group performed poorly indicating that they were not well prepared or settled in their minds. For the control group, having breakfast signified that they were all set in the minds as they concentrated more on the test and hence performed better.

This hence opens the room to recommend that students or learners would be woken up to well prepared and served breakfast as this can aid in improved learning and concentration

Limitations of the study

The study did not consider the ages of the participants, younger learners tend not to concentrate more on an empty stomach as the older individuals would do. This hence leaves a lot of loopholes in the study.

Areas of further study

Further research should be centered on finding out whether preparing for an exam while taking breakfast or taking breakfast without preparing for an example can affect the student test scores.

References

In Bernal-Morales, B. (2018). Health and academic achievement.

National Council for the Social Sciences (U.S.). (1988). Social studies and the young learner. Washington, D.C.: National Council for the Social Stud

Comparative Bar Chart

Frequency No Breakfast 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-65 66-70 71-75 76-80 81-85 More 3 10 12 12 14 14 14 19 17 14 19 2 0 0 0 Frequency Breakfast 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-65 66-70 71-75 76-80 81-85 More 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 21 15 19 21 27 25 22 0 Cumulative % 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-65 66-70 71-75 76-80 81-85 More 0.02 8.666666666666667E-2 0.16666666666666666 0.24666666666666667 0.34 0.43333333333333335 0.52666666666666662 0.65333333333333332 0.76666666666666672 0.86 0.98666666666666669 1 1 1 1