GCSE maths Higher Tier exam

Ok am looking through the mock exam and I come across a question like this

A doctor wants to encourage her patients to take more exercise

The doctor has approximately 500 patients

She decides to do a survery about what excercise her patients take

This is a question in this survery

Do you exercise?

Tick a box

Yes No Sometimes Everyday

Give a criticism of the question

ok first of all, how the hell is this maths!? Give a criticism of the question!? what the hell, could someone explain this to me

and then it goes on further asking me to

"Give a criticism of the response section"

And then the final last question

"This is another question in this survey"

How many miles did you walk last week

Give a suitable response section for this question

I thought this was supposed to be maths not English!

Reply 1

JOR2010

14

Original post by mickno

Ok am looking through the mock exam and I come across a question like this

A doctor wants to encourage her patients to take more exercise

The doctor has approximately 500 patients

She decides to do a survery about what excercise her patients take

This is a question in this survery

Do you exercise?

Tick a box

Yes No Sometimes Everyday

Give a criticism of the question

ok first of all, how the hell is this maths!? Give a criticism of the question!? what the hell, could someone explain this to me

and then it goes on further asking me to

"Give a criticism of the response section"

And then the final last question

"This is another question in this survey"

How many miles did you walk last week

Give a suitable response section for this question

I thought this was supposed to be maths not English!

No time scale, no amount of activity given.

Reply 2

mickno

OP

2

Sorry what do you mean by that?

Reply 3

gdunne42

21

Original post by mickno

Do you exercise?

Tick a box

Yes No Sometimes Everyday
!

Firstly why all the 'what the hell' ? Statistics is a huge part of the practical application of mathematics and if you ask vague questions you get useless data.

Think about how you would answer the exercise question......

What does sometimes mean to you? (I have done some but can't remember the last time, once or twice a week, once or twice a month, once or twice a year ?). What does yes mean? Yes I did it once? Yes I exercise 2-3 times a week...... How do I answer if I exercise 6 days a week... Yes? Sometimes? Every day (I almost do) ? Data collected with this question would be useless.

If you are going to gather data that you can analyse and compare then the question needs to be specific and time bound. E.g. how many hours of TV do watch each week?

The answer boxes also need to be comprehensive (all possible answers accounted for) and exclusive (only 1 box could be ticked by each person).

(edited 12 years ago)

Original post by gdunne42

exclusive (only 1 box could be ticked by each person).

Sadly not any more. Edexcel have decided to condone overlapping boxes now and mark the (correct) use of inequalities as wrong.

Reply 5

gdunne42

21

Original post by Mr M

Sadly not any more. Edexcel have decided to condone overlapping boxes now and mark the (correct) use of inequalities as wrong.

mmmm yes, saw that mark scheme, do you think that they can continue with that approach? I emailed them but have yet to get a reply.

Original post by gdunne42

mmmm yes, saw that mark scheme, do you think that they can continue with that approach? I emailed them but have yet to get a reply.

I would like to believe they will admit they were wrong but they may not be prepared to do so in these times of heightened political scrutiny. Let me know the outcome of your email.

Reply 7

IB_19

What module of GCSE Maths is this?

I would say that the criticism is that the options are a bit vague and the doctor won't receive any value from people saying either "yes" or "no"; if people answered yes, they should be required to go into more detail - e.g. for how long, what type of exercise, etc.

Reply 8

x_zahida_x

Hey mr m i was wondering if your going to tell us whats coming up in the march 2012 maths gcse exam like you did in june?

GCSE maths Higher Tier exam

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