Question

tariq’s math teacher plots student grades on their weekly quizzes against the number of hours they say they study on the pair of coordinate axes and then draws the line of best fit. what does the shape of the line represent?

Explanation:

The line of best fit in a scatter plot (here, plotting grades vs. study hours) has a positive slope (since it's increasing). The slope of a line of best fit in such a context (bivariate data with two quantitative variables: study hours - independent, grade - dependent) represents the rate of change of the dependent variable (grade) with respect to the independent variable (study hours). So, it shows how much the grade is expected to change (increase, here, as slope is positive) for each additional hour spent studying. In other words, it represents the approximate change in a student’s quiz score for each additional hour they spend on homework (or studying, as per the context).

Answer:

The slope of the line of best fit represents the approximate change in a student’s quiz score for each additional hour they spend on homework (or studying). Specifically, it shows how much the quiz grade is expected to increase (since the line has a positive slope) per one - hour increase in the time spent studying.