Ms. Random’s math students collect data to determine the correlation between the number of hours of study outside of the classroom and the change in a student’s ACT scores. The students ask their classmates who took the ACT as juniors and as seniors to anonymously submit their ACT scores and the hours per week they studied outside of the classroom. The number of hours spent studying is then related to the change in ACT scores using this equation, where x is the number of hours studied per week and y is the change in ACT score. y = 1 + 2x
Interpret the y-intercept of this equation in its context.