Exam Statistics

Grade 8 Mathematics

1. Give definitions in your own words of the following: (K)

a) mean b) range
c) mode d) median
e) quartile f) interquartile range
g) maximum h) percentile
i) population j) sample

2. Mrs Mahlangu writes down the marks for the English test that the students in her class got for
their first class test and wants to work out the different statistics for the test. She asks you to
help her. Below are the marks that the 31 students scored:
87 74 76 21 65 29 28
13 63 56 58 54 19 63
66 52 4 72 34 69 58
42 50 52 48 67 63 72
58 81 61

a) Determine the mean mark. (R)

b) If an A is 80% and above, how many students got an A? (C)
c) Give the range of the marks. (R)
d) Give the median and the mode of the data. (R)
e) Give the first and third quartiles of the marks. (R)
f) Find the interquartile range. (C)
g) How many students got a mark that was less than the average class mark? (C)
th
h) Determine the 40 percentile of the data. (C)
i) Determine the 60th percentile of the data. (C)
j) According to the data gathered in the previous questions, do you think the test was a
fair test? Give a reason for your answer. (P)
3. The Department of Education interviews 100 teachers and asks them to rate the classes they
teach on a scale of one to ten with one being very difficult to teach and ten being very easy to
teach. The results are displayed in the table below. Redraw the table and include a cumulative
frequency before answering the questions that follow:

Rating Frequency Rating Frequency

1 3 6 18
2 6 7 17
3 8 8 15
4 9 9 12
5 12 10 0

a) Determine the mode of the data. (R)

b) Determine the median, quartile 1 and quartile 3 from the table. (C)
c) Determine the average score of the teachers. (C)
d) Draw a histogram of the data. (R)
e) Determine the range and the interquartile range. (R)

4. Given below is the box and whisker plot of the data for Danielle’s scores (out of 50) she
received for the 20 different dance routines she did over the last 6 months.

a) Give the range of scores Danielle receives. (R)

b) Give the interquartile range. (R)
c) How many scores did Danielle get between 24 and 41? (C)
d) How many scores did Danielle get between 17 and 41? (C)
e) What can you say about the spread of Danielle’s scores? (C)
f) If Danielle’s top 25% of scores occurred in the last two months, what can we say about
Danielle’s dancing? (P)
g) In order to go through to the next round, you need to score more than 40. In how many
competitions did Danielle go through to the next round? (P)
5. Below are the marks of all grade 5 learners in a Sunshine Primary school for a test out of 35.
23 34 2 31 14 12 15 28 25 33 24 21 16
34 13 25 28 27 24 23 21 30 20 7 22 17
16 11 4 0 33 14 5 22 8 29 27 9 25
29 18 5 30 1 32 17 34 12 25 31 32 27
28 27 11 17 30 25 3 24

a) Rewrite and complete the following frequency table into your workbook:
Mark Obtained Tally Frequency

b) Using the table in a) answer the following questions:

i) Calculate the approximate mean mark for the grade 5 test. (C)
ii) Determine the modal group of the data. (R)
iii) Determine the median, first quartile, third quartile and the interquartile range.
(C)
iv) Determine the 90th percentile. (C)
v) Looking at the table, and the spread of the data, what conclusions can you
draw about the test? (P)

6. The scores of the SHARKS rugby team over the last year are given below:
58 19 22 16 23 17 22 29 6 15 21 64 10
21 12 29 25 46 23 54 26 34 24 72

a) Give the 5-number summary. (R)

b) Using the data in question a) draw a box and whisker plot of the SHARK’s scores.(R)
c) What percentage of games did the SHARKS score below 23? (C)
d) What is the interquartile range? (R)
e) What can you say about the spread of the data? (P)
7. The girls’ netball team went to 25 matches over the first term. The girls measured the distance
of each trip and sorted them into groups. Below are their results:
Distance Frequency
3
6
8
7
1
a) Determine the approximate average distance of the girls’ trips. (C)
b) What is the modal group of the data? (R)
c) Determine the median and the first and third quartiles. (R)
d) Draw a histogram of the data. (R)
e) Comment on the spread of the data. (P)

8. Study the histogram given below about the different weights of fish caught in the Plop Dam,
and then answer the questions that follow:

a) What is the modal group of the weight of fish? (R)

b) How many fish were caught and analysed for this histogram? (R)
c) In which group does the median of the weight of fish caught in the Plop Dam lie? (C)
d) What is the range of weights of the fish caught in the Plop Dam. (R)
e) Determine the approximate mean weight of the fish caught in Plop Dam. (C)
f) If the average weight of the type of fish caught in Plop Dam is 55 grams, how many
fish were caught that are below the average? (P)
 Exam Memorandum Statistics
Grade 8 Mathematics

1. a) mean: The average of the observations / scores. All the scores are added
together and divided by the total number of scores to find the average.
b) range: The range is difference between the biggest and smallest score or
observation. In other words range is the biggest score minus the
smallest score.
c) mode: The score or observation that happens the most.
d) median: The score or observation that is in the centre of all the scores or
observations. It is the score in the exact middle of the data.
e) quartile: A quartile represents the score or observation that marks one quarter of
the data. In other words, it is the score that is halfway between the
median and either the lowest (first quartile) or highest (third quartile)
score. (Remember that the median is the second quartile)
f) interquartile range: Is the difference between the first and third quartile, or it is the
third quartile minus the first quartile.
g) maximum: The biggest score in the data.
h) percentile: Just as a quartile measures a quarter of the data, a percentile shows
the score at a certain percentage of the data. For example, the median
is the 50th percentile – it represents 50% of the data.
i) population: Is the entire collection of all the possible observations, for example all
the zebras in Africa would be a population, or all the people in South
Africa.
j) sample: A sample is a small group taken from the population and tested, scored
or observed, for example – interviewing every 1000th person in South
Africa.

2. 4 13 19 21 28 29 34 42 48 50 52 52 54
56 58 58 58 61 63 63 63 65 66 67 69 72
72 74 76 81 87
 a)

b) 2 c) Range = biggest – smallest

Range = 87 – 4 = 83
d) Position

Median = 58 Mode = 58 and 63

e) Q1 Position Q3 Position

Q1 = 42 Q3 = 67

f) IQR = Q3 – Q1 = 67 – 42 = 25 g) 12

h) Position

40th Percentile = 54

i) Position

60th Percentile = 63

j) The test seemed to be a fair to easy test. The average is 53% while the 40th percentile
is 54, this means that more than 60% of the students got more than the average score.

3.
Rating Frequency Cumulative Rating Frequency Cumulative
Frequency Frequency
1 3 3 6 18 56
2 6 9 7 17 73
3 8 17 8 15 88
4 9 26 9 12 100
5 12 38 10 0 100
 a) mode: 6
b) Median Position Median 6

Q1 Position Q1 = 4

Q3 Position Q3 = 8

c)

d)

The frequency of rating teachers

gave to the department of
education
20

15
Frequency

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Rating

e) Range = biggest – smallest = 9 – 1 = 8

IQR = Q3 – Q1 = 8 – 4 = 4

4.
 a) Range = biggest – smallest = 49 – 7 = 42

b) IQR = Q3 – Q1 = 41 – 17 = 24

c) Between 24 and 41 is 25% of the data.

25% of 20

Danielle got 5 scores between 24 and 41.

d) Between 17 and 41 is 50% of the data.

50% of 20

Danielle got 10 scores between 17 and 41.

e) Danielle’s lower scores are all closer together while her scores above 24 are much
further spread out.

f) That her dancing has improved and that she got 5 scores between 41 and 49.

g) 5 competitions (25% of the competitions she entered).

5. a)
Mark Obtained Midpoint Tally Frequency Cumulative
Frequency
2.5 |||| || 7 7
7.5 ||| 3 10
12.5 |||| ||| 8 18
17.5 |||| || 7 25
22.5 |||| |||| |||| 14 39
27.5 |||| |||| || 12 51
32.5 |||| |||| 9 60

b) i)

ii)
 iii) Median Position

Median =

Q1 Position

Q1 =

Q3 Position

Q3 =

iv) 90th Percentile Position

90th Percentile

v) The test was quite easy – most of the grade 5’s did very well.

6. 6 10 12 15 16 17 19 21 21 22 22 23 23
24 25 26 29 29 34 46 54 58 64 72

a) Minimum: 6 Maximum: 72
Median Position Median

Q1 Position Q1 = 17

Q3 Position Q3 = 34

b)

c) 50%

d) IQR = Q3 – Q1 = 34 – 17 = 17

e) 75% of the SHARKS’ scores are grouped very close together, the top 25% of the
scores are very far apart.
7.
Midpoint Cumulative
Distance Frequency
Frequency
2.5 3 3
7.5 6 9
12.5 8 17
17.5 7 24
22.5 1 25

a)

b)

c) Median Position Median =

Q1 Position Q1 =

Q3 Position Q3 =

d)
Frequency of Distnaces (in Km) travelled by
the netball team
9
8
7
6
Frequency

5
4
3
2
1
0
2.5 7.5 12.5 17.5 22.5
Distance in Km

e) Most of the data lies between 5 and 20km – the data is relatively evenly spread.
8. a)

b) n = 7+ 13 + 18 + 23 + 34+ 16 + 8 = 119

c) Median Position

Median in group →

d) Range = biggest – smallest = 75 – 5 = 70grams

e)

f) Below 55 = 95