Can a pretest on mathematics skills predict success in a statistics course? the 55 students in an introductory statistics class took a pretest at the beginning of the semester. the least-squares regression line for predicting the score y on the final exam from the pretest score x was y = 10.5 + 0.82x . the product of 0.82 times x (the pre-test score) + 10.5 predicts the score on the final exam, y. the standard error of b was 0.38. test the null hypothesis that there is no linear relationship between the pretest score and the score on the final exam against the two-sided alternative.