England · AQASyllabus
Statistics syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the England Statisticssyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
Probability
Module overview →- How do you measure and combine the chances of events?The probability scale, theoretical and experimental probability, relative frequency, expected frequency, and the addition and multiplication rules.9 min answer →
- How do you describe the probabilities of all outcomes at once?Probability distributions, the discrete uniform distribution, the binomial distribution, and expected values.9 min answer →
- How do you find probabilities of combined and conditional events?Tree diagrams, Venn diagrams, sample space diagrams, independent and conditional probability, and set notation.10 min answer →
Processing and representing data
Module overview →- How do you read medians and quartiles from grouped data?Cumulative frequency tables and graphs, estimating the median and quartiles, and drawing and interpreting box plots.10 min answer →
- Which diagrams suit discrete and categorical data?Stem and leaf diagrams, multiple and composite bar charts, comparative pie charts, and choosing the right diagram.8 min answer →
- How do you display continuous data with unequal class widths?Histograms with equal and unequal class widths, frequency density, frequency polygons and population pyramids.9 min answer →
- How do you organise raw data into clear tables and charts?Frequency tables, grouped frequency tables, two-way tables, pictograms, bar charts and pie charts.9 min answer →
Scatter diagrams and correlation
Module overview →- Does correlation prove that one thing causes another?The difference between correlation and causation, spurious correlation, and confounding variables.7 min answer →
- How do you fit a line to data and use it to predict?Lines of best fit through the mean point, the equation of the line, interpolation, extrapolation, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.10 min answer →
- How do you display and read the relationship between two variables?Plotting scatter diagrams, bivariate data, identifying types and strength of correlation, and spotting outliers.8 min answer →
Summarising data
Module overview →- How do you compare two data sets fairly?Comparing distributions using an average and a measure of spread, skewness, and writing comparisons in context.8 min answer →
- How do you find a single typical value for a data set?Mean, median and mode, averages from frequency tables, estimated mean from grouped data, and weighted means.9 min answer →
- How do you measure how spread out a data set is?Range, interquartile range, percentiles, the effect of outliers, and choosing a measure of spread.8 min answer →
- How do you find quartiles and use them to detect outliers?Finding quartiles from a list and from cumulative frequency, the interquartile range, percentiles and identifying outliers.9 min answer →
- How do you measure spread using every value in the data?Variance and standard deviation, calculating standard deviation from a list and a frequency table, and interpreting it.10 min answer →
The collection of data
Module overview →- How do you collect good data and write fair questions?Data collection sheets, tally charts, questionnaires, open and closed questions, response boxes and avoiding leading or biased questions.8 min answer →
- How do you keep an investigation fair and free of bias?Explanatory and response variables, controlled and extraneous variables, control groups, and sources of bias in sampling and data collection.8 min answer →
- How do you choose a fair sample that represents a population?Populations, sampling frames, census versus sample, random, systematic, stratified, quota and cluster sampling.9 min answer →
- How do statisticians turn a question into reliable conclusions?The statistical enquiry cycle, hypotheses, the stages of an investigation, and types of statistical problem.8 min answer →
- What kinds of data are there and why does the type matter?Qualitative and quantitative data, discrete and continuous data, primary and secondary data, and categorical and ranked data.8 min answer →
The normal distribution and index numbers
Module overview →- How do you track how prices and quantities change over time?Simple index numbers, the base year, the Retail Price Index and Consumer Price Index, and chain base and weighted index numbers.9 min answer →
- How do you compare scores from different distributions?Standardised scores, the standardised score formula, and using them to compare performance across distributions.8 min answer →
- How is naturally varying data distributed?The shape of the normal distribution, symmetry about the mean, and the 68, 95, 99.7 percent rule.8 min answer →
Time series
Module overview →- How do you smooth out seasonal variation to see the trend?Calculating moving averages, choosing the period, centred moving averages, and plotting them to show the trend.9 min answer →
- How do you display and read data collected over time?Time series graphs, trend, seasonal variation, cyclical and random variation, and reading time series data.8 min answer →
- How do you use a trend to predict future values?Trend lines through moving averages, the mean seasonal effect, and forecasting future values from a time series.9 min answer →