Strand 1 Junior Certificate Higher Level Probability and Statistics

Probability and statistics is one of the strands of the Project Maths course in the Irish curriculum and the UK GCSE curriculum. This free online course prepares students for the higher level, Junior Certificate, exam with teaching on how to use a range of statistical tools to handle and analyze data and interpret the results.

It begins with lessons from the Strand 1 Junior Certificate Ordinary Level Probability and Statistics course covering Arrangements and then Selection and Arrangements, where you are taught how many variations you can have of a group of objects beside each other, and also how many variations you might have if trying to fit eight books into five spaces. Next, this course introduces a new topic - Cumulative Frequency and the Ogive Curve. This is followed by a lesson demonstrating how the Ogive Curve is useful for finding the median and quartiles of a set of data. The lesson from the Ordinary Level course, demonstrating how to find the mean, median class, modal class and range of grouped frequency tables follows. Another way of arranging data for analysis is to construct a stem and leaf diagram which is also covered in the Ordinary Level course. This course expands the topic to include a comparative stem and leaf diagram. The example cited is comparing the amount boys and girls spend on downloads monthly. You will then look into a histogram which is a type of bar chart that is useful for visualising the underlying frequency distribution (shape) of a set of continuous data.

The course then moves on to probability, which is concerned with the likelihood of something happening. The information can be used to make informed decisions or to infer the fairness of an event. It can be evaluated using a diagram or a rule-based approach. This strand attempts to merge the mathematical aspects of probability and statistics with their real-life applications. It includes lessons on the probability of simple events, the probability of compound events and finally, using a tree diagram to work out probabilities. It is an interesting topic that is very accessible to all students, not just those undertaking the Junior Certificate. Anyone who wants to revise high-school stats and probability for their school or work life can benefit from this course.