Quantitative data on the end of year maths test scores of children in year 8. Compare the data by making hypotheses to indicate if there is something comparable between the results.

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I. INTRODUCTION

For my Maths GCSE’s I am required to do two pieces of coursework one of which is a piece on statistics.

The purpose of this project is to help me investigate a real life situation using statistics. In this case I have been given some quantitative data on the end of year maths test scores of children in year 8. What I am supposed to do is compare the data by making hypotheses to indicate if there is something comparable between the results.

First I have decided it would be best to make my hypotheses. Also since there is not a lot of data I have decided it would be best to make only two hypothesises.

  1. All the Boys total scores were much higher than the Girls total scores.

  1. People who attained good marks on Paper 1 attained good marks on Paper 2.

Data Collection

The data of the test scores was given to me in excel format. On it were the test results of paper 1, paper 2, mental and the total scores. This same data was given for boys and Girls. There are results for 59 Girls and 77 Boys. So then to make comparing the results easier I chose a sample of 30 boys and girls. I chose this sample at random so that my data would not be biased. I chose it at random by using the sort then RAND on excel.  

This is my sample but wait I realise that I have made a mistake when excel was sorting my data at random it has included the anomaly which I need to work out. So I must sort again so that my data is complete and not biased.


Final Sample:


Right, now this is my final sample of 30 from each gender I can proceed to planning how to go about my hypotheses.


 

2. HYPOTHESES

Hypothesis 1: -

“All the Boys total scores were much higher than the Girls total scores.”

Plan

  Firstly I am going sort my quantitative data in order of smallest to largest. This then will allow me to group my data and put it in a table so that it is more manageable and also easier to view. There will be two tables one with the Boys data and one with the Girls. Also by grouping my data I can later on draw a cumulative frequency curve much easier.

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  Next I am going to start add a column to my table and work out the cumulative frequency. After this I am going to plot my cumulative frequency curve on graph paper and not on excel because the values of the quartiles cannot be read accurately from excel. Again there will be two cumulative frequency curves one for the boys and another for the girls. These curves are being drawn to help me draw box plots that will allow me to compare the two total scores easily.

  Now on this cumulative frequency curve I am going to mark ...

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