Edexcel S3 2008 June — Question 5

Exam BoardEdexcel
ModuleS3 (Statistics 3)
Year2008
SessionJune
TopicData representation
TypeCritique given sampling method

  1. A researcher is hired by a cleaning company to survey the opinions of employees on a proposed pension scheme. The company employs 55 managers and 495 cleaners.
To collect data the researcher decides to give a questionnaire to the first 50 cleaners to leave at the end of the day.
  1. Give 2 reasons why this method is likely to produce biased results.
  2. Explain briefly how the researcher could select a sample of 50 employees using
    1. a systematic sample,
    2. a stratified sample. Using the random number tables in the formulae book, and starting with the top left hand corner (8) and working across, 50 random numbers between 1 and 550 inclusive were selected. The first two suitable numbers are 384 and 100 .
  3. Find the next two suitable numbers.