1E organising and interpreting data

Primary data

Data collected first-hand by a researcher

Secondary data

Data scored from prior research

Quantitative data

Data that is expressed numerically

Qualitative

Data that is expressed non-numerically

Objective data

factual data that is observed and measured independently of personal opinion

Subjective data

Data that is informed by personal opinion, perception or interpretation

measures of central tendency

Descriptive statistics that summarise data set by describing the centre distribution of the data set with a single value

• mean, median, mode

Mean

The average

Median

The middle value in a data set ordered from lowest to highest

Mode

The most frequently occurring in a value in a data set

Measures of variability

statistics that summarise and describe the spread and distribution of a data set

• range and standard deviation

Range

A value obtained by subtracting the lowest value in a data set from the highest value

standard deviation

a value that describes the spread of data around the mean