Series 2 Examination 2010

BUSINESS STATISTICS
Level 2 Wednesday 7 April Subject Code: 2009 Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CANDIDATES Answer 4 questions. All questions carry equal marks. There is a list of formulae at the end of the paper. Graph paper is provided within the answer book. Write your answers in blue or black ink/ballpoint. Pencil may be used only for graphs, charts, diagrams, etc. All answers must be correctly numbered but need not be in numerical order. Workings must be shown. Make sure your answers are accurate and neat. You may use a calculator provided the calculator gives no printout, has no word display facilities, is silent and cordless. The provision of batteries and their condition is your responsibility. .

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ASE 2009 2 10 1

QUESTION 1 Sunita works for a customer service telephone help-line. She records the time, in seconds, that each of a sample of 76 callers have to wait to be connected to the telephone help-line. Table 1 shows the grouped data. Table 1 Time, t (seconds) 0t<3 3t<6 6 t <9 9 t < 12 12 t < 15 15 t < 18 18 t < 21 Number of callers 2 5 7 24 24 8 6

To simplify the data she regroups the 76 readings as shown in Table 2. Table 2 Time, t (seconds) 0t<6 6 t <10 10 t < 11 11 t < 14 14 t < 21 Number of callers 7 8 22 18 21

(a) (b)

Give two reasons why the first table represents a better form of grouping than the second. (4 marks) State the modal classes for the distributions in Table 1 and 2. What do your answers show? (4 marks)

(c)

Use the data in Table 1 to draw a cumulative frequency graph (ogive) for the recorded times. (6 marks)

(d)

Using your graph or otherwise, find the values for (i) (ii) (iii) median the quartile deviation the percentage of calls that take between 8 and 14 seconds to be connected. (9 marks)

(e)

Calculate the probability that any one call, selected at random from the 76 recorded in Table 1 will be connected in under 10 seconds. (2 marks) (Total 25 marks)

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QUESTION 2 (a) (i) (ii) Explain the differences between primary and secondary sources of data. (2 marks) Give one advantage and one disadvantage in using each of these two alternative sources of data. (4 marks)

The Operations Manager of a company producing electric light switches recorded the number of faulty switches being packaged ready to be sent to customers on Thursday last week. All output was packed in boxes each containing 600 switches. The table shows the number of faulty switches recorded for the 15 boxes packaged that day. 0 11 10 9 12 8 8 1 7 4 10 6 6 9 10

(b)

Find the value of the following measures for the data given above: (i) (ii) (iii) the mean the mean deviation the standard deviation. (11 marks)

Later it was found that due to a recording error, two switches in each box had been listed as satisfactory when they were in fact faulty. (c) What effect would this new information have on the values for the mean and standard deviation? (4 marks) Equivalent figures for the companys main 4 competitors (B,C,D,E) were as follows: Faulty switches per box of 600 mean 7.4 6.8 6.8 9.1 standard deviation 1.98 4.28 1.98 6.16

Company B C D E

(d)

Using this information and some of your answers from part (b), comment on which of the five companies appears to offer the best quality switch, justifying your choice. (4 marks) (Total 25 marks)

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QUESTION 3 A large food store employs part-time staff on Saturdays. The manager of the store wants to know if there is a relationship between the number of part-time staff employed and Saturday takings. He collects data over ten successive Saturdays. Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Number of part-time staff employed (x) 5 9 13 15 19 23 25 28 30 33 Takings (00) (y) 20.3 24.6 26 17.4 28.8 36.3 38 42.4 45.2 49

(a)

Plot the data on a scatter diagram. (3 marks)

On one Saturday severe weather blocked a number of the roads near the store. (b) (c) State, with a reason, on which of the Saturdays this is likely to have happened. (3 marks) Calculate the equation of the regression line in the form y = a+bx for takings on part-time staff employed. (You should exclude from this calculation the readings for the Saturday found in your answer to part (b)). (11 marks) (d) (e) Explain in context what a and b represent in the regression equation found in part (c). (4 marks) Based on the 10 weeks data provided, give two reasons why it would be wrong to assume that increasing the number of part time staff employed will always lead to an increase in Saturday takings. (4 marks) (Total 25 marks)

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QUESTION 4 The table shows the percentage age distribution for three of the ethnic groups that formed part of the 2001 UK population census Age (yrs) under 16 19 36 20 16-34 25 35 40 35-64 40 25 35 65 + 16 4 5 Adapted from ONS: Summer 2003 (a) Represent these data in the form of a percentage component bar chart, showing three bars, one for each of the three groups listed. (6 marks) Comment on three key differences shown in the chart. (6 marks) The following data shows the distribution of wealth in the UK based on the 2004 government taxation records. Wealth distribution in the UK in 2004 Wealth owned by Most wealthy 1% Most wealthy 5% Most wealthy 10% Most wealthy 25% Most wealthy 50% Most wealthy 100% % of wealth owned including dwellings 24 43 57 76 95 100 % of wealth owned excluding dwellings 34 59 72 87 98 100 Source: HM Revenue 2005 (c) Use these figures to draw on the same graph Lorenz curves for (i) (ii) the % wealth owned including dwellings the % wealth owned excluding dwellings. (9 marks) (d) Give two comments based on the patterns of UK wealth distribution shown in the graph. (4 marks) (Total 25 marks)

Ethnic group White Pakistani Chinese

(b)

(Label each curve clearly).

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QUESTION 5 Sampling is used in each of the following examples: (i) (ii) (iii) (a) testing the lifetime of vehicle exhaust systems carrying out regular quality checks on iPods as they are being assembled conducting a national opinion poll on whether the UK should stay in the European Union.

Give a different reason in each case to explain why sampling is necessary. (6 marks)

Records show the following breakdown by gender and marital status of a towns adult population. Marital Status Gender Single Male Female 2470 3450 Married 7180 6400 Divorced 5300 5200

(b)

Describe how a sample of 450 adults from this town could be selected using (i) (ii) random method systematic method. (4 marks)

(c)

If the sample of 450 adults was stratified by gender and marital status, how many would be included in each of the following groups (i) (ii) married males divorced females? (4 marks)

Due to traffic congestion in a town, proposals are being put forward for the construction of a by-pass. A council planning officer draws up 8 different routes for the proposed by-pass. Two residents (X and Y) were asked to rank the eight alternatives in order of their suitability. The results were: Alternative Routes A 4 7 B 1 1 C 6 6 D 7= 2 E 3 4= F 2 3 G 7= 8 H 5 4=

Resident X Y

(d)

Calculate Spearmans correlation coefficient between the two sets of rankings given above and interpret the value obtained. (8 marks)

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QUESTION 5 CONTINUED A further nine pairs of residents were asked to rank the eight alternative routes being considered. The value of the correlation coefficients for each of the pairs was: 0.35 -0.43 0.06 -0.83 0.93 -0.04 -0.95 -0.34 0.48 (e) (i) (ii) Which two of the values shows there is almost no correlation between the rankings of each pair of residents? Which of the values shows the strongest correlation between each pair? (3 marks) (Total 25 marks)

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QUESTION 6 A motor insurance company keeps records of its 400 insured drivers based on their age and risk category. The following table summarises this data. Risk category Low 24 80 38 Medium 50 75 18 High 85 28 2

Age group (years) 18 29 30 59 60 and over

A customer record is selected at random from the total of 400. (a) Use the table to calculate the probability that the record is for an insured driver (i) (ii) aged 18-29 years and medium risk category aged 60 years and over or low risk category. (4 marks) At a later date a random sample of three driver records are selected at random, without replacement, from the list of 400 available. (b) Calculate the probability that: (i) the first two of the three records chosen will be for low risk drivers aged 30-59 years (4 marks) (ii) of the three records chosen, two of the drivers will be from the high risk 18-29 year group and the other from the medium risk 30-59 year group. (6 marks) The company also recorded the value of insurance claims made per quarter for 2007-09. Value of claims (00) Year Quarter 1 2007 2008 2009 41 39.4 37.8 Quarter 2 91.4 86.2 85.8 Quarter 3 129.4 128.6 125.4 Quarter 4 55.8 54.2 53

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QUESTION 6 CONTINUED (c) (d) (e) Describe two patterns in the value of insurance claims over that period. (4 marks) By means of an appropriate moving average find the trend values for the data. (5 marks) Explain why it would be useful to seasonally adjust the time series data in this case. (2 marks) Total (25 marks)

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BLANK PAGE

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Education Development International plc 2010

LEVEL 2

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Education Development International plc 2010