Paper Reference(s)

6670
Edexcel GCE
Statistics S3
Advanced Level
Specimen Paper
Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Materials required for examination Items included with question
papers
Answer Book (AB16) Nil
Mathematical Formulae (Lilac)
Graph Paper (ASG2)

Candidates may use any calculator EXCEPT those with the facility for
symbolic algebra, differentiation and/or integration. Thus candidates
may NOT use calculators such as the Texas Instruments TI 89, TI 92,
Casio CFX 9970G, Hewlett Packard HP 48G.

Instructions to Candidates
In the boxes on the answer book, write the name of the examining body (Edexcel), your
centre number, candidate number, the unit title (Statistics S3), the paper reference (6670),
your surname, other name and signature.
When a calculator is used, the answer should be given to an appropriate degree of accuracy.

Information for Candidates

A booklet ‘Mathematical Formulae and Statistical Tables’ is provided.
Full marks may be obtained for answers to ALL questions.
This paper has six questions.

Advice to Candidates
You must ensure that your answers to parts of questions are clearly labelled.
You must show sufficient working to make your methods clear to the Examiner. Answers
without working may gain no credit.

This publication may only be reproduced in accordance with London Qualifications Limited copyright policy.
Edexcel Foundation is a registered charity. © 2003 London Qualifications Limited
1. The 240 members of a bowling club are listed alphabetically in the club’s membership book.
The committee wishes to select a sample of 30 members to fill in a questionnaire about the
facilities the club offers.

(a) Explain how the committee could use a table of random numbers to take a systematic
sample.
(3)
(b) Give one advantage of this method over taking a simple random sample.
(1)

2. The weights of pears, P grams, are normally distributed with a mean of 110 and a standard
deviation of 8. Geoff buys a bag of 16 pears.

(a) Write down the distribution of P , the mean weight of the 16 pears.
(2)
(b) Find P(110 < P < 113).
(3)

3. The three tasks most frequently carried out in a garage are A, B and C. For each of the tasks the
times, in minutes, taken by the garage mechanics are assumed to be normally distributed with
means and standard deviations given in the following table.

Task Mean Standard deviation

A 225 38
B 165 23
C 185 27

Assuming that the times for the three tasks are independent, calculate the probability that

(a) the total time taken by a single randomly chosen mechanic to carry out all three tasks lies
between 533 and 655 minutes,
(5)
(b) a randomly chosen mechanic takes longer to carry out task B than task C.
(5)

NO
4. At the end of a season a league of eight ice hockey clubs produced the following table
showing the position of each club in the league and the average attendances (in hundreds) at
home matches.

Club A B C D E F G H
Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Average 37 38 19 27 34 26 22 32

(a) Calculate the Spearman rank correlation coefficient between position in the league and
average home attendance.
(5)
(b) Stating clearly your hypotheses and using a 5% two-tailed test, interpret your rank
correlation coefficient.
(4)
Many sets of data include tied ranks.

(c) Explain briefly how tied ranks can be dealt with.

(2)

5. For a six-sided die it is assumed that each of the sides has an equal chance of landing
uppermost when the die is rolled.

(a) Write down the probability function for the random variable X, the number showing on the
uppermost side after the die has been rolled.

(2)
(b) State the name of the distribution.
(1)
A student wishing to check the above assumption rolled the die 300 times and for the sides 1 to
6, obtained the frequencies 41, 49, 52, 58, 37 and 63 respectively.

(c) Analyse these data and comment on whether or not the assumption is valid for this die.
Use a 5% level of significance and state your hypotheses clearly.
(8)

13
6. A sociologist was studying the smoking habits of adults. A random sample of 300 adult
smokers from a low income group and an independent random sample of 400 adult smokers
from a high income group were asked what their weekly expenditure on tobacco was. The
results are summarised below.

N mean s.d.
Low income group 300 £6.40 £6.69
High income group 400 £7.42 £8.13

(a) Using a 5% significance level, test whether or not the two groups differ in the mean
amounts spent on tobacco.
(9)
(b) Explain briefly the importance of the central limit theorem in this example.
(2)

7. A survey in a college was commissioned to investigate whether or not there was any association
between gender and passing a driving test. A group of 50 male and 50 female students were
asked whether they passed or failed their driving test at the first attempt. All the students asked
had taken the test. The results were as follows.

Pass Fail
Male 23 27
Female 32 18

Stating your hypotheses clearly test, at the 10% level, whether or not there is any evidence of an
association between gender and passing a driving test at the first attempt.
(11)

8. Observations have been made over many years of T, the noon temperature in °C, on 21st
March at Sunnymere. The records for a random sample of 12 years are given below.

5.2, 3.1, 10.6, 12.4, 4.6, 8.7, 2.5, 15.3, –1.5, 1.8, 13.2, 9.3.

(a) Find unbiased estimates of the mean and variance of T.

(5)
Over the years, the standard deviation of T has been found to be 5.1.

(b) Assuming a normal distribution find a 90% confidence interval for the mean of T.
(5)
A meteorologist claims that the mean temperature at noon in Sunnymere on 21st March
is 4 °C.

(c) Use your interval to comment on the meteorologist’s claim.

(2)

END

NQ