Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / iii / Paper 32 / 1 / a / i / Solution

For a one-sided Wald test use the signed normal Wald statistic, rather than its square. The maximum-likelihood estimate is the sample mean ${\bar{Y}}_n$, with exact variance ${\sigma }^2/n$, soA sum of independent normal random variables is normal, giving ${\bar{Y}}_n\sim N(\delta ,{\sigma }^2/n)$ and hence $W_n\sim N(\sqrt{n}\delta /\sigma ,1)$. Under the null hypothesis its mean is zero:Thus its null distribution is exactly the standard normal distribution, without an asymptotic approximation. If the squared Wald statistic convention is used, $W_n^2$ has a chi-squared distribution with one degree of freedom; the signed form is needed to distinguish the two directions.