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Estimating Slopes

Many suggest that students should first learn how to estimate the slope of a graph by hand before using a least squares linear regression routine. Students must first draw a straight line through their data that represents the linear trend of the data. They may want to draw three lines for: the best guess; the largest slope; and the smallest slope consistent with the data.

SlopeEstimateGraph

The links below provides basic guidelines for estimating the slope of a line.

  • Slope of a Straight Line is from Purple Math. This site is intended as an algebra review/tutorial but it is useful in that it has interactive practice examples for students to test their understanding.