A Level OCR Maths 2 hours 23 questions

1.1 Sampling & Data

Collection
1.1.1 Sampling & Data Collection

Easy (7 questions) /37 Scan here to return to the course

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Medium (8 questions) /39

Hard (8 questions) /60

Total Marks /136

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Easy Questions
1 The Office for National Statistics runs a compulsory census every ten years to gather
information about all individuals and households in England and Wales. The information
gathered helps organisations make decisions on planning and funding for public services
in each area, including transport, education and healthcare.

(i) Explain what is meant by a census.

(ii) Write down two disadvantages of using a census rather than a sample.

(3 marks)

2 Computer components produced by an electronics company are each given a unique

serial number. A34X processing chips are produced in batches of 2500. For quality
control, the company tests a random sample of 20 A34X chips from each batch.

(i) Suggest a suitable sampling frame from which to obtain this sample.

(ii) Identify the sampling units.

(2 marks)

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3 (a) Continuous variables can take any value in a given range whereas discrete variables can
only take specific values in a given range.

State whether each of the following variables are discrete or continuous.

(i) Perimeter of a park.

(ii) Number of workers in a factory.

(iii) Speed at which a humming bird flaps its wings.

(iv) Time in minutes spent playing CandyCrush.

(v) Colour of passing cars.

(vi) Age of a person.

(3 marks)

(b) Numerical variables or data are quantitative whereas non numerical variables or data
are qualitative.

Give two examples of variables or data for each of the following

(i) quantitative

(ii) qualitative.

(2 marks)

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4 (a) A fast-food chain, introducing a new vegan menu, employ a researcher to investigate
people’s opinions before they launch the products. The researcher decides to conduct a
survey on a random sample of people to gather their opinions on vegan fast food. He
decides to stand at the entrance to a busy shopping mall on a Wednesday afternoon and
attempts to get shoppers to answer his questions.

Explain what is meant by the words ‘population’, ‘sampling unit’ and ‘sampling frame’.
You may use the context of the above scenario as an example.

(3 marks)

(b) (i) State the sampling technique the researcher is using to gather data.

(ii) Suggest one improvement the researcher could make to get a better sample and
give a reason for your choice.

(3 marks)

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5 (a) A flatpack furniture company, AEKI, has a testing facility where its products are put
through a series of safety and quality checks.

Suggest two reasons why it would not be sensible for AEKI to test every product they
produce.

(2 marks)

(b) Explain how AEKI could use a systematic sample to test their products.

(2 marks)

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6 (a) A high school holds an annual summer festival to raise money for events and trips
throughout the year. Before this year’s festival the headteacher decided to survey the
opinion of staff and students using a stratified sample.

(i) Explain why the headteacher decided to take a stratified sample of staff and
students.

(ii) Suggest a suitable sampling frame and identify the sampling units.

(3 marks)

(b) Suggest a possible problem that might arise with the sampling frame when selecting the
staff and students.

(2 marks)

(c) There are 360 students and 40 staff at the school.

Explain how the headteacher could take a stratified sample of size 40

(3 marks)

(d) Suggest one improvement that could be made when calculating the stratified sample to
gain a more representative sample of staff and students within the school and give a
reason for your answer.

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 (2 marks)

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7 (a) N’Oréal, a hair and beauty company, release an advertising campaign for its new product
called ‘Face Amazifier’. The small print at the bottom of the advert says the following

‘55% of 25 existing customers agree that the product makes your face feel more
amazing.’

The Advertising Standards Agency get complaints that the advert is not representative.

Explain the meaning of ‘bias’ in relation to the choice of sample N’Oréal has used.

(2 marks)

(b) Suggest two ways N’Oréal could improve their sample to make it more representative.

(2 marks)

(c) (i) Show that 55% of 25 customers is not a valid statistic for N’Oréal to use.

(ii) State the two closest possible alternative figures that would be valid.

(3 marks)

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Medium Questions
1 (a) The Office for National Statistics runs a compulsory census every ten years to gather
information about all individuals and households in England and Wales. The information
gathered helps organisations make decisions on planning and funding for public services
in each area, including transport, education and healthcare.

Suggest one advantage and one disadvantage of the Census only being carried out every
ten years.

(2 marks)

(b) A local council wants to gather opinions from residents about opening a new care home.
They decide to conduct their own survey and need to pick between using a systematic or
a stratified sample.

Give two reasons why the council may be better off conducting their own survey rather
than attempting to use census data to obtain the desired information.

(2 marks)

(c) Explain the main differences between a systematic sample and a stratified sample.

(2 marks)

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2 (a) Every week an orangutan sanctuary measures the weight of each of its orangutans.

The weights, to the nearest kg, of ALL their 18 adult males are listed below:

52, 57, 63, 80, 56, 66, 101, 68, 55, 96, 70, 62, 66, 64, 99, 91, 55, 92

(i) State the data collection process used to collect the above data.

(ii) Describe the type of data collected.

(2 marks)

(b) Using an opportunity sample of size six, calculate the mean weight of the male
orangutans from the data set above.

(2 marks)

(c) Starting from the third data value, take a systematic sample of size six and re-calculate
the mean weight of the male orangutans from the data set above.

(2 marks)

(d) Compare your results from parts (b) and (c) and state, with a reason, which sampling
method is more reliable.

(2 marks)

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3 (a) A supermarket wants to gather data from its shoppers on how far they have travelled to
shop there. One lunchtime an employee is stationed at the door of the shop for half an
hour and instructed to ask every customer how far they have travelled.

(i) State the sampling method the employee is using.

(ii) Give one advantage and one disadvantage of using this method.

(3 marks)

(b) State and briefly describe an alternative method of non-random sampling that the
employee could use to obtain the required data for a sample of 30 customers.

(2 marks)

4 To check the quality of produce used in a restaurant kitchen, the head chef likes to taste
one item from each box of produce as soon as it arrives at the restaurant. Some
produce is then kept in cold storage and used throughout the week.

(i) Suggest a reason why the chef does not taste test every item.

(ii) Suggest one way the chef’s sample taste test could be improved.

(2 marks)

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5 A company wants to survey 15% of its staff to find out whether employees would like to
continue working from home after the Covid-19 pandemic. The company’s 580 members
of staff are grouped by job as follows: 295 engineers, 11 managers, 154 office staff and
120 apprentices.

Suggest a suitable sampling method and explain how the company can use this method
to obtain its sample.

(5 marks)

6 The wingspans of a random sample of flamingos in a reserve were measured to the

nearest centimetre. The results are shown in the table below:

Wingspan (cm) Number of flamingos, f

140 - 144 2
145 - 149 5
150 - 154 8
155 - 159 3
160 - 164 6
165 - 169 1

(i) State the class boundaries, midpoint and class width for the class 150 – 154.

(ii) What is the maximum possible range of wingspans for the flamingos included in
the data set?

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 (4 marks)

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7 (a) A toy shop, ‘Toys 4 U’, tests the battery life for a new toy by leaving a sample of the toys
switched on until their batteries run out.

Give one reason why the shop decided to use a sample rather than a census.

(1 mark)

(b) Five toys out of a shipment of 5000 were tested and the battery life (in minutes) of each
toy was recorded:

172 minutes 252 minutes 248 minutes 155 minutes 161 minutes

The shop decides to display a sign beside the toys saying ‘Up to 4 hours battery life’. Use
the sample data above to comment on the sign.

(2 marks)

(c) Suggest one way in which the shop could improve its prediction.

(1 mark)

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8 (a) Ramona wants to examine data about the number of people who work from home. As
there are 10 regions in the large data set, she initially decides to look at a sample of 10
Local Authorities. She decides to compare data from the first Local Authority listed for
each region, with the results shown in the table below:

Work mainly at or
Region Local Authority
from home
North East County Durham 20 652
North West Allerdale 6025
Yorkshire & The Humber Barnsley 7945
East Midlands Amber Valley 5697
West Midlands Birmingham 32 837
East of England Babergh 5776
London Barking & Dagenham 4740
South East Adur 2991
Bath & North East
South West 10 624
Somerset
Wales Anglesey 4026

The North East is made up of just 12 Local Authorities whereas the South East contains
67 Local Authorities. All other regions have between 21 and 47 Local Authorities each.

Give one reason for why the sample above is not a stratified sample.

(1 mark)

(b) Explain why a sample size of 10 would not be suitable if Ramona decided to use a
stratified sample for her study.

(2 marks)

(c) Suggest a way Ramona could fix the problem outlined in part (b) in order to create a
stratified sample. You must justify your suggestion with mathematical working.

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 (2 marks)

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Hard Questions
1 (a) An online magazine which offers both free and paid for content has a large number of
readers. Readers can view additional content by paying a monthly subscription fee.
Based on reviews on the magazine’s website, the editor of the magazine believes that an
additional type of content could be introduced. Before making any changes, the editor
decides to carry out a sample survey to obtain the opinions of the readers.

Define the population that would be associated with the magazine.

(1 mark)

(b) Give one advantage and one disadvantage that would have resulted from the editor
using a census rather than a sample survey.

(2 marks)

(c) The editor decides to gather opinions from only those readers who subscribe to the
additional content. A random sample of 25 subscribers is selected for the sample
survey.

Suggest a suitable sampling frame for the survey and identify the sampling units.

(2 marks)

(d) State two sources of uncertainty that may arise based on the chosen sampling method
and sample size.

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 (2 marks)

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2 (a) A group of 20 sloth sanctuaries across Central and South America record data on all the
sloths in their care. The sanctuaries have a central database where data for each sloth is
collated. A large variety of data on each individual sloth is collected and used to help
decide when sloths are ready for releasing into the wild.

(i) Explain why a single central database may be helpful for sanctuary owners to use
when comparing data on the sloths in their care.

(ii) Explain the difference between qualitative and quantitative data and give an
example of each in the context of the question.

(3 marks)

(b) Sanctuary owners want to look at a sample of sloths as part of a general health and well-
being survey. Sloths are said to have matured into adults when they reach the age of 5;
before this they are classed as juveniles. While juveniles may be treated as a single
group for this survey, it is important that adult females and adult males be considered
separately.

In the database there are currently 240 adult sloths, 60% of whom are male, and 64
juvenile sloths. Explain how a stratified sample of size 35 could be taken.

(3 marks)

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(c) Sanctuary owners want to look at a separate sample of sloths to get an idea of how
many may be suitable for release. Sloths can be released into the wild as long as they
reach a heathy weight and are over the age of 3. Male sloths when fully matured are
generally heavier than females, although for juvenile sloths this weight difference is
negligible.

Given that a quarter of the 64 juvenile sloths in the database are over the age of 3,
explain how a stratified sample of size 35 could be taken to study suitability for release.

(3 marks)

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3 (a) Stephan is researching the effects a new energy drink has on the glucose levels of
students aged 13 to 18. He decides to measure the blood glucose levels of 50 female
students and 50 male students.

(i) State, with a reason, whether Stephan is using a census or a sample to conduct his
study.

(ii) Give two advantages and one disadvantage of this method.

(4 marks)

(b) Stephan is provided with an alphabetical list of 350 male students aged 13 to 18, each of
whom has agreed to supply a blood sample if asked.

Explain how Stephen could use a calculator or a random number generator to take a
simple random sample from the male students aged 13 to 18.

(3 marks)

(c) Stephen has an equivalent list of 350 female students aged 13 to 18.

Explain how Stephen could take a systematic sample from the female students aged 13
to 18.

(2 marks)

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4 (a) Freda needs to conduct a survey to investigate the type of ice cream people prefer. She
wants a random sample of people who eat ice cream. She decides to stand in a busy
high street on a Sunday afternoon and attempt to get shoppers to answer her questions.

(i) Define the word ‘population’ in the context of Freda’s survey.

(ii) State the sampling technique Freda has used.

(2 marks)

(b) Having been unsuccessful in obtaining enough data from her previous attempt, Freda
decides to look at the electoral register for her town and select a new sample of people
to contact. She needs a sample of at least 50 people, so she decides to choose a person
at random from the register and then use that person and every 5th person on the
register after that (wrapping back around to the start of the register if necessary) to build
her sample.

(i) State the sampling technique Freda has used.

(ii) Give two reasons why Freda may again be unsuccessful getting the data required
using this sampling technique.

(3 marks)

(c) Suggest an alternative method for Freda to use and explain your reasons.

(2 marks)

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5 (a) The CEO of Save My Exams, Jamie, wants to find out what users would like to see on the
revision website in future. He notices that around 15% of those who access the site have
signed up to the mailing list to get content updates.

An employee suggests that they send out an email to all those who have signed up to the
mailing list with a questionnaire for them to complete and return.

(i) Give two reasons why the users who return the questionnaire would not form a
random sample of users of the website.

(ii) Given the site has over 650 000 users, state two problems with sending out the
questionnaire in this way.

(4 marks)

(b) Jamie decides to separate users by exam board to gather more detailed opinions. A
member of the Maths Content Team suggests the use a table of random numbers to
select a random sample of 100 users from the 4581 IB mailing list subscribers. The first
five random numbers from the table are as follows.

02743 45290 19024 24337 90044

Explain how Jamie could use these random numbers to select the first few members in
the sample.

(2 marks)

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6 (a) A researcher measured heights of a random sample of giraffes. The heights in metres
are summarised in the table below.

Number of
Height, h (m)
giraffes, g
3.5 ⩽ h <4.0 2
4.0 ⩽ h <4.5 7
4.5 ⩽ h <5.0 24
5.0 ⩽ h <5.5 18
5.5 ⩽ h <6.0 3
6.0 ⩽ h <6.5 6

(i) State the class boundaries, midpoint and class width for the group containing the
greatest number of giraffes.

(ii) Given that all the heights had been rounded to the nearest centimetre in the data
set on which the table is based, what is the minimum possible range of heights for
the giraffes as represented in the data set?

(4 marks)

(b) All giraffes are allocated a unique four-digit ID number. The researcher wants to
randomly select five of the giraffes to test a new tracking device. The researcher selects
the first five giraffes with three zeros in their ID number.

(i) Explain why this may not be a good method for selecting the giraffes.

(ii) Describe an improved method of selecting the giraffes.

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 (4 marks)

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7 (a) A factory produces paper fruit baskets used for fruit pickers at ‘pick your own’ farms.
The breaking load of a paper fruit basket is the maximum load that it can carry before
the basket handles break. One ‘pick your own’ farm purchased 15 000 paper fruit
baskets but wishes to test a sample of these to establish the breaking load of the
baskets.

Suggest two reasons why a census would be unsuitable for this purpose.

(2 marks)

(b) The farm tests a random sample of six paper fruit baskets. The loads required for the
handles to break are shown below:

2.035 kg 2.845 kg 2.528 kg 1.998 kg 2.212 kg 2.378 kg

The factory claims that the fruit baskets can carry 2 kg of fruit without breaking. Use the
sample data to comment on this claim.

(2 marks)

(c) (i) Describe any limitations to the sample the farm has used.

(ii) Suggest one way the farm could improve the reliability of its results.

(3 marks)

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8 (a) The large data set contains data on methods of travel to work for people in employment
in 2001 and 2011. Data for Nottingham in the East Midlands in 2001 is summarised in the
table below:

Public
Car or van
Transport Two wheeled Other or Work
(driver or On foot
(including transport from home
passenger)
taxi)
23 228 4577 51 717 14 980 7195

A stratified sample was taken for each method of travel in 2001, with the number of
people travelling to work in a car or van given in the table below.

Public
Car or van
Transport Two wheeled Other or Work
(driver or On foot
(including transport from home
passenger)
taxi)
5187

Given that the total sample size is 10200, use your knowledge of how stratified samples
are constructed to complete the table with the appropriate numbers for the other
methods of travel.

(3 marks)

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(b) In a stratified sample of the methods of travel for Nottingham in 2011, the sample size is
chosen so that, to the nearest integer, it represents the same proportion of the total
number of people in employment as was used in the above stratified sample for 2001.
In the 2011 sample, the number of people who commuted to work on foot was
calculated to be 1912.

(i) Explain why it is not possible to work out the exact number of people who
commuted to work on foot in 2011 using the information given above.
(ii) Given that there were 123 218 people in employment in Nottingham in 2011,
calculate the range of possible values for the number of people who commuted to
work on foot in 2011.

(4 marks)

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