Statistics worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A company makes 50,000 light bulbs a day and wants to check how long they last before they fail. Testing a bulb to find out how long it lasts destroys it. Give a reason why the company should test a sample of bulbs rather than every bulb it makes.

2.A council in Leeds wants to know what local people think about letting shops stay open later in the evening. It rings landline telephone numbers between 10 am and 2 pm on a Tuesday. Write down which group is most likely to be under-represented in the sample, and give a reason for your answer.

3.A Year 10 class has 20 boys with a mean height of 150 cm and 10 girls with a mean height of 168 cm. Work out the mean height of all 30 pupils in the class.

4.A pie chart shows the favourite sport of the 40 pupils in a class: football 50%, netball 25%, tennis 15% and swimming 10%. Work out how many pupils chose football.

5.A dual bar chart shows the number of hours of rain recorded in Leeds and in Bristol on each of four days. Leeds: Monday 3 hours, Tuesday 5 hours, Wednesday 2 hours, Thursday 4 hours. Bristol: Monday 4 hours, Tuesday 4 hours, Wednesday 6 hours, Thursday 2 hours. Work out the greatest amount, in hours, by which Bristol's rainfall exceeded Leeds's rainfall on a single day.

6.A two-way table records whether each of the 30 pupils in a class passed maths and whether they passed science. 18 pupils passed maths, 12 pupils passed science and 8 pupils passed both. Work out how many pupils passed at least one of the two subjects.

7.A teacher records the number of pets owned by each of 25 pupils in a class; each pupil owns 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 pets. The teacher wants to show how many pupils own each number of pets. Write down the most suitable type of chart for this data, and give a reason for your answer.

8.A sports centre in Ipswich has 2,000 members. It wants to know what its members think of its opening hours, so it asks a random sample of 100 of them. Write down what the population is in this survey.

9.Amelia's mean mark over four tests is 29. Her first three marks are 31, 26 and 26. Work out her fourth mark.

10.A scatter graph shows the midday temperature, x °C, and the number of ice creams sold at a seaside kiosk, y. The line of best fit is y = 3x − 20. Give a reason why the y-intercept of this line of best fit is not a sensible estimate of the number of ice creams sold.

11.A café in Preston records the type of drink ordered by 20 customers one morning: tea 8, coffee 7, hot chocolate 4 and juice 1. Write down the modal drink.

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

13.The mean of the numbers x, 20 and 30 is equal to the mean of the numbers 15 and 25. Work out the value of x.

14.Work out the median of these six numbers: 13, 21, 22, 36, 37, 47

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