This exam tips covers Exam Tips for Scatter Graphs within Scatter Graphs for GCSE Mathematics. Revise Scatter Graphs in Statistics for GCSE Mathematics with 14 exam-style questions and 20 flashcards. This topic appears less often, but it can still be a useful differentiator on mixed-topic papers. It is section 6 of 8 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
Exam Tips for Scatter Graphs
- Choose appropriate scales - use most of the grid space
- Label axes clearly with variable names and units
- Plot points accurately - use a sharp pencil and read coordinates carefully
- Identify correlation type - strong/weak and positive/negative/none
- Line of best fit should be straight and balance points above/below
- Ignore outliers when drawing the line of best fit
- Extend the line appropriately for making predictions
- Be cautious with extrapolation - state that it's less reliable
Practice questions for Scatter Graphs
A scatter graph shows that as temperature increases, ice cream sales also increase. This is an example of:
A scatter graph shows a strong positive correlation between the number of ice creams sold and the number of drowning incidents at a beach. A student says: 'Ice cream causes drowning.' Explain why this conclusion is incorrect.