Jordan Hazel

PART 1: MATHS: MALAISE OR MASTERY?

Students and Staff of Tryhard High School are often debating whether or not
their students are learning the material they need to know. However the
success of these students can be debatable. Every year students sit a Maths
competition. The scores of the year 11 students from this year and the year
before were kept in a file by the school. The purpose of this investigation is to
prove that students are improving by analysing their test scores. In this report,
the steps taken to completing this investigation will be discussed and how the
ending results were found.
Last year

This year

Mean

13.2

18.6

Median

13

19

Mode

14

15

There are different ways to calculate which year the students got better
scores. To get a basic idea of which year students did better in, the mean,
median, and mode of the data can be calculated. The mean of this data would
the be the average score students received on the test. The mean is
calculated by adding all of the numbers in the data together and then dividing
it my how many numbers there are. To calculate the median, put all of the
numbers in order, and then find the middle number. Finally, the mode is the
number in the data that is repeated the most amount of times.
In last years set of scores, there are 89 pieces of data, while in this years set
of scores, there are 83 pieces of data. Through calculating the mean, median,
and mode, a rough estimate as to which year students did better can be
given. Below is a table with the calculated numbers.
From looking at the above table, it can be seen that the scores from this year
were better than the scores from last year. In comparing the performance of
these two groups, the number that was most useful in differenciating which
year students did better on the test was the mean. The mean is more useful in
this case because it is much more sensitive to the changes in the data than
the median and the mode. All of the scores in the two sets of data had normal
distribution between them. The mean is more commonly and accurately used
when the data is less skewed, while the median is used more often in cases
of skewed data. The mode can be very inaccurate when it comes to
representing data.
To more accurately look at the data as a whole instead of just parts, a
histogram of the showing the data can be drawn. A histogram is a graph that
shows frequency of data in certain categories. Below are the histograms for
the two sets of data.

Histogram 1: This Years scores

Histogram 2: Last years scores

The data was divided into different categories. The bars show which
categories were most frequent amongst the population. Another way to show
which of the two years got the higher scores would be to draw a boxplot. A
boxplot shows the five number summary of the data. The five number
summary is written in the table below.

5 number summary
This year

Last year

Minimum

First quartile

15

Median

19

13

Third quartile

22

16

Maximum

32

30

Range

26

25

The range is not part of the five number summary, but it is also useful in
drawing the histograms.
While histograms are useful when describing the frequency of data, boxplots
are useful when comparing the distributions of numbers. Below are the
boxplots for the two sets of data.

Boxplot 1: This years score

This year's scores

10

15

20

25

Boxplot 2: Last year scores

Last year's scores

10

12

14

16

18

Now that the data sets have been graphed, they can be compared to see
which years did better. Through looking at the histograms as well as the
boxplot, it is easily seen that the students at tryhard high have improved their
scores from last year.

This years scores

Last years scores

Last year's scores This year's scores

8 10 12 14 16 18 0

10

15

20

25

The two graphs for this years scores both show most students got a score of
fifteen to twenty-two. The two graphs for last years scores both show most
students got a score of nine to sixteen. From comparing the graphs it can be
seen that both graphs do match.
PART 2: SCIENCE vs. MATHS
Staff working at tryhard high school are having a debate as to which
department teaches students more. The sciences teachers think that their
department teaches more, while the math teachers think their department

teaches more. Each year students take a maths and science course. To prove
which subject students do better in, the scores students received on the test
were taken and visually represented in a boxplot. As the scores the students
received did not have much variation, it will be easier to use box plots to tell
which subjects students got better scores in. Histograms are used more often
when there is more variation in numbers and the numbers are more frequent
in the data.
To make two boxplots for this data, the five number summary of the data
needs to be worked out. The five number summary for both sets of data is in
the below data.

Science

Maths

Min

Q1

20

15

Median

24

18.6

Q3

28

22

Max

36

32

Now that the five number summary for this data has been worked out, the
boxplots can be drawn. The boxplots for the two data sets are drawn below.

10

Boxplot 1: Science scores

15

20

25

30

35

Boxplot 2: Maths scores

10

15

20

25

From looking at the above the median of the scores show that mathematics
did poorly compared to the science scores. Based off of the data above, it is
easily seen that the science teachers were right, and that students did much
better learning in their subject instead of in the maths teachers classes.
The state average for mathematics is 20.1, while the state average more
science is 24.2. The average for mathematics in this school is 18.6 which is
below the state average. The average for science in this school is 23.63 which
is above the state average.
PART 3: OVER TO YOU
Numeracy and literacy have always been an important part of our everyday
lives. Learning literacy and numeracy in schools in a large part in a schools
curriculum everywhere in the world. Recently OECD conducted a study that

compared nations averages in literacy and numeracy. It showed the test

scores in a literacy and numeracy test completed by 15 year olds from 65
nations. Australia was one of the countries that participated in the testing, and
from the results taken, the OECD report states that Australian students are
slipping behind in mathematics and literacy. Is this really true? In this report,
Australia will be compared
Data
In the OECDs last report on Australia, on average, students score 512 in
mathematics. The OECD average score is 497, which means that Australia is
above the worldwide average. In the report, it stated that girls did better on the
test than the boys by 6 points. Out of the 65 countries tested Australia ranked
17th. Below is a graph comparing Australia with some of the other countries
that participated in the testing. The green bar shows where Australia is
ranked.

Factors that effect Australian scores:

Schools in which students received higher scores had nicer working
conditions, more helpful staff and students, and more access to materials.
Students also did better when their schools stressed the importance of
academic success and a more rigorous curriculum plan. In these schools
students tended to desire to work harder and teachers were teaching in much
more effective ways. On the other hand students who attended schools where
academic success was not stressed on them, where there were little to no
disciplinary methods in place and bullying much higher, students did much
poorly. Students who had a poor home life also did worse on the test than
those who did not.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Australia is not slipping behind in mathematics as they are still
above the world wide average of 497 by 15 points. However the national
Australian average has slowly dropped over the past few years. Perhaps to
boost the scores of young Australians, mathematics could be made
compulsory all through high school. Australia is one of the only nations that
allows students to drop mathematics in their final two years of high school,
and this may be a factor in the score lowering over the past few years.