Quantitative Techniques

COQTA1

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Week 1 Revision

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 What will be covered
in today’s lesson?
Week 2
Lesson 1 Measures of Central Location (MCL)

Brief discussion on all MCL

Group Activity summarizing all MCL

in ungrouped and grouped data

Application Questions

Textbook questions
Week 2: Lesson 1

Introduction to Measures of Central Location

• Mean (arithmetic mean): The sum of all values divided by the total number of
values.

• Median: The middle number in an ordered data set.

• Mode: The most frequent value.
Week 2: Lesson 1

Arithmetic mean
• The arithmetic mean is the sum of all values divided by the total number of
values

• Outlier effect on mean

• Population vs sample mean
Week 2: Lesson 1
Median
• The median of the data set is the value that is precisely in the middle as it is
ordered from low to high. It divides an ordered set of data values into two equal
halves

• Odd position

• Even position
Week 2: Lesson 1

Mode
• The mode is the value that occurs most often in the data. It is important to note
that there may be no mode or more than one mode in the dataset.

• How to calculate mode of large data samples

Week 2: Lesson 1

Other measures of central location

• Geometric mean -> percentages are written as decimals

• Weighted average
How do you know when it is
best to use mean, median or
mode?
Measure of Central When is it best to use it?
Location
Mode Categorical data (nominal or ordinal)
Numerical data (interval or ratio-scaled)
Outliers detected in your data set

Mean Numerical data (interval or ratio-scaled)

Only if outliers are removed can you use the mean

Median Numerical data (interval or ratio-scaled)

Outliers detected in your data set & most preferred
Group Activity
Groups
Summarise the different types of measures
of central tendency into their respective
headings and identify which formulas are
used for grouped and ungrouped data.
• Mean
• Median
• Mode
• Quartiles
Week 2: Lesson 1
Non-central measure of location: Quartile
• Quartiles are non-central measure of location that split your data into four parts based on where
the numbers fall on the number line.

Quartile value = approximate quartile value + fraction of quartile position (consecutive value after
the quartile position – approximate quartile value)
Week 2: Lesson 1
Non-central measure of location: Quartile
• Quartiles are non-central measure of location that split your data into four parts based on where
the numbers fall on the number line.
 Activity: Data analysis
• From a group on 5-6 individuals and each
group will be provided with a dataset. Based on
the dataset provided each group should
calculate :
• Mean
• Median
• Mode
• Quartile 1 and 3
 What will be covered
in today’s lesson?
Week 2
Measures of Dispersion
Lesson 2 (MD)

Brief discussion on all MD

Application Questions

Textbook questions
Week 2: Lesson 2

Introduction to Measures of Dispersion (MD)

• Dispersion describes how far apart data points lie from each other and from the
centre of a distribution

• Range
• Interquartile range
• Variance
• Standard deviation
 Activity: Data analysis
• From a group. Each group will be provided with
a dataset. Based on the dataset provided each
group should calculate :
• Range
• IQR
• Variance
• Standard Deviation
Week 2: Lesson 2

Conclusion
• Summary
• Ensure you complete lessons and activities on myLMS
• Be well prepared for the next Lecturer-Led session
• If you have any questions on the content or examples on myLMS, please ask during the
next Lecturer-Led session
• Next topic:
• Basic Probability Concepts (BPC)