Practice questions on stats [62 marks]

1. [Maximum mark: 4] EXN.2.SL.TZ0.1

A data set consisting of 16 test scores has mean 14. 5 . One test score
of 9 requires a second marking and is removed from the data set.

Find the mean of the remaining 15 test scores. [4]

2. [Maximum mark: 4] 22M.2.SL.TZ1.2

The number of hours spent exercising each week by a group of students is
shown in the following table.

The median is 4. 5 hours.

(a) Find the value of x. [2]

(b) Find the standard deviation. [2]

3. [Maximum mark: 6] 22M.2.SL.TZ2.5
A random sample of nine adults were selected to see whether sleeping well
affected their reaction times to a visual stimulus. Each adult’s reaction time was
measured twice.

The first measurement for reaction time was taken on a morning after the adult
had slept well. The second measurement was taken on a morning after the same
adult had not slept well.

The box and whisker diagrams for the reaction times, measured in seconds, are
shown below.

Consider the box and whisker diagram representing the reaction times after
sleeping well.

(a) State the median reaction time after sleeping well. [1]

(b) Verify that the measurement of 0. 46 seconds is not an outlier. [3]

(c) State why it appears that the mean reaction time is greater than
the median reaction time. [1]

(d) Now consider the two box and whisker diagrams.

Comment on whether these box and whisker diagrams provide
any evidence that might suggest that not sleeping well causes
an increase in reaction time. [1]
4. [Maximum mark: 14] 20N.2.SL.TZ0.S_9
Fiona walks from her house to a bus stop where she gets a bus to school. Her
time, W minutes, to walk to the bus stop is normally distributed with
W ~N(12, 3 ).
2

Fiona always leaves her house at 07:15. The first bus that she can get departs at
07:30.

(a) Find the probability that it will take Fiona between 15 minutes
and 30 minutes to walk to the bus stop. [2]

The length of time, B minutes, of the bus journey to Fiona’s school is normally
distributed with B~N(50, σ ). The probability
2
that the bus journey takes less
than 60 minutes is 0. 941.

(b) Find σ. [3]

(c) Find the probability that the bus journey takes less than 45
minutes. [2]

If Fiona misses the first bus, there is a second bus which departs at 07:45. She
must arrive at school by 08:30 to be on time. Fiona will not arrive on time if she
misses both buses. The variables W and B are independent.

(d) Find the probability that Fiona will arrive on time. [5]

(e) This year, Fiona will go to school on 183 days.

Calculate the number of days Fiona is expected to arrive on

time. [2]
5. [Maximum mark: 5] 19M.2.SL.TZ1.S_1
Ten students were asked for the distance, in km, from their home to school. Their
responses are recorded below.

0.3 0.4 3 3 3.5 5 7 8 8 10

(a) For these data, find the mean distance from a student’s home to
school. [2]

The following box-and-whisker plot represents this data.

(b) Find the value of p. [1]

(c) Find the interquartile range. [2]

6. [Maximum mark: 15] 18M.2.SL.TZ2.T_2
A transportation company owns 30 buses. The distance that each bus has
travelled since being purchased by the company is recorded. The cumulative
frequency curve for these data is shown.

(a) Find the number of buses that travelled a distance between

15000 and 20000 kilometres. [2]
(b.i) Use the cumulative frequency curve to find the median
distance. [2]

(b.ii) Use the cumulative frequency curve to find the lower quartile. [1]

(b.iii) Use the cumulative frequency curve to find the upper quartile. [1]

(c) Hence write down the interquartile range. [1]

(d) Write down the percentage of buses that travelled a distance

greater than the upper quartile. [1]

(e) Find the number of buses that travelled a distance less than or
equal to 12 000 km. [1]

It is known that 8 buses travelled more than m kilometres.

(f ) Find the value of m. [2]

(g) The smallest distance travelled by one of the buses was 2500
km.
The longest distance travelled by one of the buses was 23 000
km.

On graph paper, draw a box-and-whisker diagram for these

data. Use a scale of 2 cm to represent 5000 km. [4]
7. [Maximum mark: 14] 17N.2.SL.TZ0.S_8
Adam is a beekeeper who collected data about monthly honey production in his
bee hives. The data for six of his hives is shown in the following table.

The relationship between the variables is modelled by the regression line with
equation P = aN + b.

(a) Write down the value of a and of b. [3]

(b) Use this regression line to estimate the monthly honey

production from a hive that has 270 bees. [2]

Adam has 200 hives in total. He collects data on the monthly honey production
of all the hives. This data is shown in the following cumulative frequency graph.
Adam’s hives are labelled as low, regular or high production, as defined in the
following table.

(c) Write down the number of low production hives. [1]

Adam knows that 128 of his hives have a regular production.

(d.i) Find the value of k; [3]

(d.ii) Find the number of hives that have a high production. [2]

(e) Adam decides to increase the number of bees in each low

production hive. Research suggests that there is a probability of
0.75 that a low production hive becomes a regular production
hive. Calculate the probability that 30 low production hives
[3]
become regular production hives.

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