Statistics worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A charity shop in Bath holds 2,000 books. Volunteer A checks a random sample of 50 books and finds 35 paperbacks. Volunteer B checks a different random sample of 50 books and finds 31 paperbacks. Work out the estimate each sample gives for the whole stock, and write down what the shop should do next.

2.A company found that the higher the price it charged for a product, the lower the satisfaction score its customers gave. The price and the satisfaction score are plotted on a scatter graph. Describe the line of best fit that would be drawn on that graph.

3.A town council wants to find out about the eating habits of the people who live in the town. It asks only the members of a local sports club. Give a reason why this sample is biased.

4.On a scatter graph the horizontal axis shows height in centimetres and the vertical axis shows mass in kilograms. One point is plotted at (170, 65). Write down the height and the mass of that person.

5.A café in York counts the number of customers in each of the nine hours it is open on one day: 4, 4, 4, 11, 13, 15, 18, 22 and 25. The owner says that a typical hour has about 4 customers, because 4 is the mode. Is the owner right? Give a reason for your answer.

6.In a scatter graph of the age, in years, and the wingspan, in cm, of 20 birds of the same species, all the points lie close to a rising line of best fit except one, which lies a long way below the line. That bird was later found to have a damaged wing. Give a reason why this point should not be used when drawing the line of best fit.

7.The seven members of Team A took 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 40 seconds to finish a task. The seven members of Team B took 20, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38 and 40 seconds. Tomás says that because the two teams have the same range, their times are spread out in the same way. Is Tomás right? Give a reason for your answer.

8.Four pairs of variables are listed below. Write down the pair that you would expect to show no correlation.

9.Four pairs of variables are listed below. Write down the pair that you would expect to show negative correlation.

10.A school has 1200 pupils. A teacher wants to take a random sample of 60 of them. Write down which of these methods gives a random sample.

11.The rainfall, in millimetres, was recorded in Cambridge on six days: 12, 5, 9, 15, 3 and 11. Work out the range of the rainfall.

12.A school has 1,500 pupils. The head teacher takes a random sample of 150 of them from the school register and asks how long they spend on homework. Rory says the sample is too small for the result to mean anything. Is Rory right? Give a reason for your answer.

13.The masses of eight school bags, in kilograms, are 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11. Work out the median mass.

14.A pupil writes this question for a school survey: “Do you agree that learning matters and that we should be set more homework?” Write down what is wrong with the survey question.

15.A survey of 25 pupils in Derby records how many siblings each has: 0 siblings — 6 pupils, 1 sibling — 10 pupils, 2 siblings — 6 pupils, 3 siblings — 3 pupils. Calculate the mean number of siblings.