Periodically, customers of a financial services company are asked to evaluate the company's financial consultants and services. Higher ratings on the client satisfaction survey indicate better service, with 7 the maximum service rating. Independent samples of service ratings for two financial consultants are summarized here. Consultant A has 10 years of experience, whereas consultant B has 1 year of experience. Use
= 0.05
and test to see whether the consultant with more experience has the higher population mean service rating.
Consultant A Consultant B
n1 = 16
n2 = 10
x1 = 6.82
x2 = 6.26
s1 = 0.65
s2 = 0.75
(a)
State the null and alternative hypotheses.

H0:

1 − 2 > 0

Ha:

1 − 2 ≤ 0

H0:

1 − 2 = 0

Ha:

1 − 2 ≠ 0


H0:

1 − 2 ≤ 0

Ha:

1 − 2 = 0

H0:

1 − 2 ≤ 0

Ha:

1 − 2 > 0

H0:

1 − 2 ≠ 0

Ha:

1 − 2 = 0
(b)
Compute the value of the test statistic. (Round your answer to three decimal places.)
(c)
What is the p-value? (Round your answer to four decimal places.)