Rap Music vs Solving Integrals

I personally can never focus while listening to music, let alone rap music with lots of lyrics. However, many of my friends claim they study better with music, so I decided to put it to the test.

For my Probability & Statistics (ECE286) course project, my team and I decided to investigate the effect of lyrical rap on speed and accuracy of solving integrals. 24 second-year Engineering Science students were assigned to complete a set oftwo Calculus II level integrals with or without the influence of rap music.

I conducted the data collection and analysis in R Studio. It was my first time using R, so I had to learn as I went along.

Their solution times and accuracy were measured and results showed that the music group had a slightly lower mean score (6.8 vs 7.6 out of 10) and an equal mean time (about 8.5 minutes).