Teaching SQA Advanced Higher Statistics

Information - Exercises - Solutions - Quizzes.

Lessons

Lesson Details.

These lesson details include:

Resources

All the resources are offered without any warranty or guarantee of their accuracy, although every effort has been made to make them as error-free as possible.

CIMT Statistics eBook, with solutions and Excel data files.

CIMT Further Statistics eBook, with solutions and Excel data files.

These two eBooks are from the University of Plymouth's 'Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching' (CIMT) and were originally written for A-Level Statistics and A-Level Further Statistics. They cover most of the content in the SQA Advanced Higher Statistics course and permission has been generously granted to host them here.

Each download .zip file contains:

In the eBooks, a red line next to a question's printed data set means that the numbers are in the Excel file.

AH Statistics Worksheets and Teaching Materials.

This covers parts of the course that are not included in the CIMT eBooks.

It includes worksheets for:

An interactive tool allows the user to visually and numerically interrogate the distributions of rank sums that underpin the Mann-Whitney Test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test.

This interactive tool supports the creation of annotated graphs of Normal Distribution.

This interactive demonstration highlights the effects of working with bivariate data that is a sample of a much larger population.
A video demonstration introducing it can be viewed [here].

By the end of the AH Statistics course, students have to make decisions about what type of analysis to perform on any given set of data. The list of choices and analysis techniques that they have to select from can be quite extensive.

The Analysis Decision Flowchart is an interactive web-page that prompts the user to decide which choice they wish to make at each stage, and it leads them through one possible decision making process. In essence, it's an attempt to train students to be 'thinking the right sort of thoughts' about what to look out for when faced with a data set.

It is not being presented here as necessarily the 'right way' to think about things, and it's certainly not intended to promote a linear or formulaic approach to the world of Statistical analysis. There will no doubt be other sequences of questions that a Statistician might ask themselves to arrive at similar conclusions.

For the technically minded, it's a single, standalone .html file. This means that you could choose 'Save as' in your browser to download a copy of it, and then run it locally on a device that has a web browser without being connected to the internet. Indeed, for the more coding-orientated teachers who want to edit the text that's contained within it or change the sequencing of the questions, then a standard html editor should reveal the file's inner workings and hopefully it's clear how things can be modified to suit your needs.

TI-Nspire

Multiple TI-Nspire documents have been authored to support delivering the SQA AH Statistics course content.

TI-Nspire Computer Software [Free 30 day trial].

using TI-Nspire software for past SQA AH Statistics exams.

TI-Nspire .tns files for CIMT eBooks, teaching resources and widgets

The download .zip file contains:

In addition, there are three pdf guides:

  1. 'Sampling Procedures using TI-Nspire OS4.2.pdf' shows how to simulate:
  2. 'Simple Coding of Statistical Simulations.pdf' shows how to simulate a wide variety of probability simulations
  3. 'Simulation of Chi-Squared Contingency Table.pdf' details the design of the .tns file 'ChiSquared Simulation RxC.tns'

Below is a list of all the .tns teaching files, by conceptual category:

General Background

Probability

Measures of Dispersion

Random Variables

Samples

Hypothesis Testing & Inference

Bivariate Analysis

RStudio

Various software packages can support the delivery of AH Statistics - see the Software section of the Links page to access some of them.

  • R is a free programming language that is widely used by Statisticians and Data Analysts.
  • RStudio is a free, user-friendly interface that supports programming in R.
  • RStudio Cloud (now known as Posit Cloud) is a free online version of the RStudio Desktop software, that can be used with any web browser.

    • some R code for past AH Statistics Exam Papers

    With RStudio installed, you can run the .Rmd file, see the output and compare it to hand-written solutions.

    The 2023 AH Statistics Conference at Glasgow University included sessions on using RStudio to ...

    To support some of the exercises on this website, an Posit Cloud Workspace Project has been created to show how R can be used to perform many of the analysis techniques in the AH Statistics course.

    The instructions given below will guide you through...

  • the process of creating a free Posit Cloud account
  • creating your own copy of the Project
  • configuring your workspace
  • running the R code.

    • to access the Posit Cloud Project for the AH Statistics Course

    You should be presented with a login screen for Posit Cloud.
    Click on 'Sign up' in the bottom right.

    Enter an email address, and create a memorable password.
    You will then be prompted for a name for your account - you can just leave this as your name.
    Click on 'Create Account'

    You will see a 'Deploying Project' message. Wait until this ends.

    Find the words 'Save a Permanent Copy' along the top right part of the screen. Click on these words.

    You should see three main panes, called 'Console', 'Environment' and 'Files'

    Find the toolbar that shows 'File Edit Code View Plots Session Build Debug Profile Tools Help'
    Click on 'View'
    Select 'Panes'
    Select 'Pane Layout...'
    In the 4 panel display that appears, the top right panel is labelled 'Environment, History, Connections....'
    Click on this label and select 'Console'
    Click 'OK'

    You should now see four main panes, called 'Untitled1', 'Console', 'Environment' and 'Files'.
    The new pane that has 'Untitled1' in it is called the 'Source' pane, and it is where the code that will be run will appear.

    Locate the Toolbar again.
    Click on 'Tools'
    Select 'Global Options...'
    Select 'Appearance' from the vertical list of options
    In the Editor Theme box, select 'Cobalt'
    Click the 'OK' button

    The four panes should now all go to a dark background.

    In the 'Environment Pane', look to the far right corner and see two rectangular icons - one small and one large. These minimise and maximise the pane, respectively.
    Click on the small rectangular icon in order to minimise the Environment pane.

    Congratulations! You have now configured the Posit Cloud Interface to be optimised for running the code.
    You should not have to repeat any of the above steps, going forwards.

    In the Files pane, you will see a list of files relating to the AH Statistics course.
    Click on the file that you wish to use, and it will open in the Source pane.

    You should see chunks of code that each have a {yellow title inside curly brackets}
    To the far right of each title are three icons, the last of which is a green triangle 'play button': play_arrow
    Clicking on play_arrow runs the code in that chunk.
    The output from running a code chunk appears in two places - just below the code chunk in the Source pane, and also in the Console pane in the top right.

    You can edit the code and re-run it at any time by clicking on the play_arrow

    Revision

    Revision Quizzes

    The download .zip file contains:

    1. Quick Sampling Quizzes
    2. Which Test Quizzes

    Answers to these quizzes may be requested by sending an email to: statistics AT nhost DOT uk

    The Scottish Qualifications Authority owns the copyright to its question papers, marking instructions, course reports and Understanding Standards materials.

    Exam Guidance

    Published in 2024.
    Published in 2021.

    Past Exam Papers








    Data and Statistics Cartoons

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Q: Why does this website exist?

    A: The intention was for this collection of resources to support AH Statistics Teachers around Scotland in delivering the course, using free resources that are tailored to the course content. Currently, no single published textbook offers this.


    Q: I have found a mistake in one of the resources - can it please be fixed?

    A: Yes! Just send an email with as much detail as possible to: statistics AT nhost DOT uk


    Q: Can I please obtain the original Word documents for the some of the worksheets?

    A: That should be possible. Just send a nicely worded email to: statistics AT nhost DOT uk


    Q: Who is the author of this website?

    A: It's Nevil Hopley. He taught Statistics in Secondary Schools between 1996 and 2023. This website is not affiliated to any organisation.


    Q: Does this site use any cookies?

    A: No. The only data that is recorded from your visit is your IP address along with the date and time of what navigation tabs you clicked on or files that you downloaded.