Association of Chartered Certified Accountants · Management Accounting
ACCA MA Data analysis and statistical techniques: practice questions with answers
6 free exam-style questions on Data analysis and statistical techniques for ACCA MA Management Accounting. Try each one, then open the answer to read the explanation. Fincora has 20 original questions on this syllabus area.
Question 1
A market researcher for Pellow Cosmetics stands in a shopping centre and interviews passing shoppers. She has been told to keep interviewing until she has spoken to 60 women aged under 30, 60 women aged 30 or over, 40 men aged under 30 and 40 men aged 30 or over. She chooses whom to approach. Which sampling method is she using?
- A Stratified random sampling
- B Cluster sampling
- C Quota sampling
- D Systematic sampling
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Answer: C. In quota sampling the population is divided into categories (here by sex and age) and the interviewer must obtain a fixed number of responses from each category, choosing the individuals herself. It is quick and cheap and needs no sampling frame, but it is not random, so interviewer bias can arise.
Stratified random sampling uses the same idea of strata, but individuals are selected randomly from a list of each stratum.
Question 2
Corvane Bank wants to survey the views of its branch staff on a new computer system. It has 40 branches of broadly similar size. To limit travel costs, it numbers the branches, selects 5 of them using random numbers, and then interviews every member of staff at each of the 5 chosen branches. Which sampling method is Corvane Bank using?
- A Multistage sampling
- B Stratified random sampling
- C Cluster sampling
- D Quota sampling
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Answer: C. Cluster sampling divides the population into groups (clusters), usually geographical, selects a few clusters at random and then surveys all the items in each chosen cluster. It saves travel time and cost, but the sample may be less representative if the clusters differ from each other.
Compare multistage sampling, which also selects groups at random but then takes a further random sample within each group, and stratified sampling, which samples from every stratum.
Question 3
Ashgrove Utilities wants to check a sample of 120 of the 3,600 customer refund claims it received last year. The claims are numbered 0001 to 3600 in the order in which they were received. Ashgrove will use systematic sampling. Using random numbers, it has chosen claim 0014 as the first claim in the sample. Which claim will be the eighth claim selected, and what is a particular risk of this method?
- A Claim 0254; the sample may be biased if the claims have been sorted into order of value
- B Claim 0240; the sample may be biased if the claims have been sorted into order of value
- C Claim 0254; the sample may be biased if a regular pattern in the claims matches the interval
- D Claim 0224; the sample may be biased if a regular pattern in the claims matches the interval
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Answer: D. Systematic sampling selects every nth item from a list after a random start.
- Sampling interval = population / sample size = 3,600 / 120 = 30
- Random start = claim 0014 (the 1st item in the sample)
- k-th item = 14 + (k - 1) x 30, so the 8th item = 14 + 7 x 30 = claim 0224
Systematic sampling is quick and spreads the sample evenly through the population, but it is not truly random once the start is chosen. If the list contains a regular pattern (for example, claims from one large branch arriving every 30th position, or a weekly cycle) that coincides with the interval, the sample may be biased.
Question 4
Larchfield Retail collects data on customer behaviour from its till systems (stored in database tables), from website click records (stored as tagged log files), and from recordings of calls to its customer service centre and photographs that customers post on social media. Which characteristic of big data is illustrated by the need to handle so many different formats of data?
- A Variety
- B Volume
- C Velocity
- D Veracity
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Answer: A. The five characteristics of big data are:
| Characteristic | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Volume | very large quantities of data |
| Variety | many types and formats of data |
| Velocity | the speed at which data arrives and must be processed |
| Value | the usefulness of the data once analysed |
| Veracity | the accuracy and trustworthiness of the data |
Larchfield holds structured data (till records in tables), semi-structured data (tagged log files) and unstructured data (call recordings and photographs). Handling this range of formats is the challenge of variety.
Question 5
Pellston Ltd uses a spreadsheet to forecast monthly sales. Cell B2 contains the expected monthly growth rate of 3%. Cell B5 contains the sales for Month 1. Cell B6 contains the formula =B5*(1+$B$2), and this formula is copied into cells B7, B8 and B9. Which formula will appear in cell B9?
- A =B5*(1+$B$2)
- B =B8*(1+$B$2)
- C =B8*(1+B5)
- D =B9*(1+$B$5)
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Answer: B. When a formula is copied, relative references (e.g. B5) change in line with the move, while absolute references (e.g. $B$2) do not change.
Copying from B6 to B9 moves the formula down three rows:
- B5 becomes B8 (the previous month's sales)
- $B$2 stays $B$2 (the growth rate)
So B9 contains =B8*(1+$B$2). Fixing the growth rate in one absolute cell means a what-if change to B2 updates every month's forecast automatically.
Question 6
Tarrow Ltd is using a spreadsheet to show forecast revenue for different combinations of sales volume and selling price. Sales volumes are entered in cells B3 to B7 and selling prices in cells C2 to G2. Cell C3 contains the formula =$B3*C$2. This formula is copied to every cell in the range C3:G7. Which formula will appear in cell E5?
- A =$B3*E$2
- B =$D5*E$4
- C =$B5*E$2
- D =$B5*C$2
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Answer: C. A $ sign fixes (makes absolute) the part of the cell reference that follows it. Parts without a $ change when a formula is copied.
| Reference | Fixed | Changes | Copied from C3 to E5 (2 columns right, 2 rows down) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $B3 | Column B | Row | $B5 |
| C$2 | Row 2 | Column | E$2 |
So E5 contains =$B5*E$2: the volume in row 5 multiplied by the price in column E. These mixed references let one formula be copied across a whole two-way table, which is a common way of building sensitivity ("what if") tables in costing and budgeting.
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