IB Mathematics SL & HL

descriptive statistics - 1
answers on next page
4 questions ̶ progressing from ‘accessible’ to ‘discriminating’

1. A football (soccer) team played 40 matches during one year. In each match the team
scored either 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 goals. The table below shows the number of matches
(frequency) where they scored a certain number of goals. [ no calculator ]

number of goals 0 1 2 3 4 6
number of matches (frequency) 7 12 k 9 4 1
(a) Calculate the value of k.
(b) Find
(i) the median;
(ii) the interquartile range.

2. A test is given to 160 students.

Each student earned a score on a
100-point scale. The cumulative
frequency graph for the scores is
shown. [ no calculator ]
(a) Write down the number
of students who earned a
score of 50 points or less.

(b) The middle 50% of test results

lie between marks a and b,
where a  b . Find a and b.

3. A set of data has a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3. [ calculator allowed ]

(a) Each value in the data set has 6 added to it. Write down the value of
(i) the new mean;
(ii) the new standard deviation.
(b) Each value in the original data set is multiplied by 6.
(i) Write down the value of the new mean.
(ii) Find the value of the new variance.

4. In a sample of data, it is known that f  42 , x  72.3 and the standard deviation

 f x  f x
2
of the sample is 34.1. Find the values of and for this sample of data.
[ calculator allowed ]

© InThinking – IB Maths HL & SL 1

IB Mathematics SL & HL

descriptive statistics - 1

Answers

1. (a) k  7 (b) (i) median  2 (ii) IQR  2

2. (a) 30 (b) a  55, b  75

3. (a) (i) 16 (ii) 3

(b) (i) 60 (ii) 324

 f  x  492 ,  f  x
2
4.  6114.1

© InThinking – IB Maths HL & SL 2