The Chief Examiner said "The common error here was to assume that frequency equals the area under a bar, rather than using the relationship that the frequency is proportional to the area under the bar. Many candidates therefore ignored the statement in line 1 of the question about the histogram representing 140 runners and simply gave an answer of 12ร0.5 = 6 . A few candidates calculated the areas of the first 7 bars and subtracted this from 140, sadly they didnโt think to look at the histogram and see if their answer seemed reasonable. Those who did find that the total area was 70 usually went on to score full marks. A small number of candidates had difficulty reading the scales on the graph and the examiners will endeavor to ensure that in any future questions of this type such difficulties are avoided."