6.

3
UNDERSTANDING
THE CONCEPT OF
SAMPLING

Populations and samples (a recap)

Populati
on

Sample

A bit of
6.1
A population is: the full collection of people
? or things.
A sample is:
some subset of the population
intended to represent the
?
population.
Advantages of
sampling
Cheaper/quicker than taking a census.
A bit of
6.2

Data obtained
from all members
of the population is
known
? as a
census.

Useful when testing of items results in

their destruction (e.g. life-time of light
bulb)

Disadvantages of sampling

Potential for bias.

Natural variation between any two
samples due to variation in data.

Sampling key terms

If a census is
ruled out as
being too
impractical,
you can get
the required
information
from selected
members that
form a sub set
of the
population.
Each individual thing
in the population
that can be sampled
is known as a
sampling unit.

Sampl
e

The list of all those within

the population that can be
sampled is known as the
sampling frame.

The chosen
members of a
whole population
are called a
sample.
An investigation
using a sample is
called a sample
survey

You have a sampling

frame

Within the sampling

frame, comes your
sample. The people
that actively
participate

A question break down:

Tip for question on samples:
Make sure you relate the answer to the context being given in the question:

Before introducing a new rule the secretary of a

golf club decided to find out how members might
react to this rule.
(a) Explain why the secretary decided to take a
random sample of club members rather than ask all
the members. (1)
(b) Suggest a suitable sampling frame. (1)
(c) Identify the sampling units.

(a) Saves time / cheaper / easier

a) or
Basically asking you the
A
census / asking
allcensus
members takes a
disadvantages
of a
time or
expensive
difficult to
b) long
In relation
toisthe
question,orwhat
carry
mightout
a golf club have that will give
us information of people that attend
the club?
(b)
register
or database
of all
c) TheList,
singular
version
of a sample
club
members
Fullbe the
frame.
So using/ golfers
part b) or
it will
membership
list from the list.
single members
A.K.A. the .
(c) Club member(s)

6.4
THE
ADVANTAGES
AND
DISADVANTAGES
OF SAMPLING

Summary and Key Words

Key words:
Sample: a selection of items
from a population
Sampling frame: a list of
items in a population

Summary:

SOME
QUESTIONS