Exam Questions on Sampling Techniques
Exam Questions on Sampling Techniques
Amy’s selection criteria, requiring participants to have listened to the album and be within specific age quotas, might limit the validity by excluding potential respondents who might offer differing opinions. This could result in sampling bias towards younger and more dedicated fans. While ensuring age diversity, the exclusion criteria might not reflect general album reception across a broader audience .
Proportionate stratified sampling is chosen to ensure the sample's demographic makeup mirrors the estimated driver-to-non-driver ratio of 5:1. Thus, of the 250 samples, 208 should be drivers and 42 non-drivers, maintaining consistent proportions with the entire population. This method ensures representativeness, increasing the validity and reliability of the survey findings .
Convenience sampling, such as selecting the five potatoes closest to the farmhouse, can lead to biased results that are not representative of the entire field's crop. This method fails to consider the variability in growth conditions across the field. The farmer’s claim that this sample means all potatoes are ready for harvest may be misguided; wider and more randomized samplings could yield different results .
Method A proposes sampling the first 150 students the headteacher meets during lunchtime duty, which can introduce bias because it might over-represent students who have lunch earlier or exhibit particular behaviors. For instance, students involved in lunchtime activities might be underrepresented, skewing the results towards those who have more flexible lunchtime schedules and possibly misleading inferences about revision habits .
Amy uses quota sampling by dividing attendees into age brackets (0-15, 16-30, and 31+) and samples 20 people from each bracket to ensure a range of ages. A disadvantage of this method is that it might not accurately reflect demographic diversity beyond age, such as sampling bias towards concert attendees, who may inherently have favorable opinions, thus not representing the broader population of Taylor Swift listeners .
Stratified sampling is suitable as it ensures that the sample accurately reflects the proportions of males and females (125 males and 95 females) in the chess club’s population of 220 members. The club chair can maintain this proportionality by including 11 male and 9 female members in the sample of 20, thereby providing a precise representation of the club’s demographics in the sampling process .
The council selects a sample of size 250 from 95,000 residents by first listing all residents, then choosing a starting point at random and subsequently selecting every 380th individual from that point onward. This technique evenly spreads the sample over the population and is efficient for large populations, ensuring a structured and randomness in selection .
The sports company uses systematic sampling by numbering each of the 1000 trainer units from 1 to 1000, selecting a random starting number between 1 and 50, and including every 50th unit thereafter. This method is chosen over a census because it is more efficient, reducing the cost and time compared to testing all 1000 trainers. This approach is practical for evaluating wear while still providing a representative sample .
A census involves collecting data from every member of the population, which in this case would mean testing all seat belts on the 30 cars, whereas a sample involves selecting a subset of the population to analyze. The car manufacturer might choose a sample over a census to save time and resources, as testing every seat belt individually could be costly and time-consuming, especially if the number of cars produced is large .
Method C uses cluster sampling by selecting entire tutor groups for observation, as opposed to Methods A and B which employ simple random sampling based on individual students. Cluster sampling can be more efficient when groups naturally exist, reducing logistics involved in managing dispersed individuals and possibly providing insight into group dynamics or collective behaviors within tutor groups .