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A Statistical Audit Questionnaire for the Mathematical Sciences
Introduction
This questionnaire is design to enable you to obtain a profile of your knowledge, awareness
and skills in statistics and data handling and may help you to formulate a personal
development and training programme for these skills.
You should complete each question by indicating the extent to which you are able to fully
understand or do each of the topics.
Your answers should be given using the ability scale shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Definition of Ability Scale
Ability Scale
Description of ability
0
No ability – not competent.
1
Have some knowledge but no skill.
2
Can do with assistance on a day to day basis – have basic skill but
need support to be effective.
3
Can do solo – proficient in the skill and able to show others how to
use it.
4
Expert – can train others.
A training example is given below, in Table 2, to illustrate how you should allocate a scale
value for your answers. In the example the question is about ‘measuring of average’.
Table 2: Measuring of Average
Ability Scale
Description of ability
0
No ability – not competent.
1
Can define the mean, median and mode.
2
Know how to calculate the mean, median and mode and the
differences between them.
3
Know how to calculate the mean, median and mode; know which
situations each should be used in and can explain this to others.
4
Know how to calculate and use the mean, median and mode to
make comparisons between different samples or populations and
able to explain this to others.
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Mathematical Scientist Statistical Skills Audit Questionnaire
Please answer all questions in all of the following sections. You should use Table 1 as your
reference when indicating your level of ability.
Section 1 Understanding the problem solving approach
How would you rate your ability in each of the following?
Description of skill topic
When confronted with a problem:
Ability scale
No
Some
ability
knowledge
Basic
skill
Proficient
Expert
Planning an investigation and defining the
problem
Identifying relevant questions that need
answering
Recognising what data needs to be collected
Choosing appropriate methods for collecting
the data
Collecting appropriate data
Assessing the quality of the data
Identifying appropriate ways of displaying the
data
Identifying appropriate numerical summaries
of the data
Discussing initial questions in the light of
results obtained
Recognising whether additional questions
need to be answered
Deciding on action to take in light of the
results
You can use this space to make some notes to remind yourself of your needs in these skills and to
comment on how and why you have answered individual items.
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Section 2 Recognition of population structure
How would you rate your ability in each of the following?
Description of skill topic
Ability scale
No
Some
ability
knowledge
Basic
skill
Proficient
Expert
Identification of a target population
Deciding what needs to be measured
Identifying measurement scales
Deciding on appropriate sampling methods
Discriminate between population and sample
You can use this space to make some notes to remind yourself of your needs in these skills and to
comment on how and why you have answered individual items.
Section 3 Summary / description of samples
How would you rate your ability in each of the following?
Description of skill topic
Ability scale
No
Some
ability
knowledge
Basic
skill
Proficient
Expert
Using box-plots
Using stem and leaf diagrams
Using bar charts for discrete variables
Using histograms for continuous variables
Using scatter diagrams
Using time series plots
Tabulating sample data
Measuring average (including mean, median
and mode)
Measuring spread (including range and
standard deviation)
Using mean and standard deviation to
describe a distribution
Distinguishing between discrete and
continuous distributions
Recognising patterns in time series data
You can use this space to make some notes to remind yourself of your needs in these skills and to
comment on how and why you have answered individual items.
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Section 4 probability and uncertainty
How would you rate your ability in each of the following?
Description of skill topic
Ability scale
No
Some
ability
knowledge
Basic
skill
Proficient
Expert
Measuring uncertainty using probability
Using tabulated data to calculate probabilities
Calculating probabilities for conditional events
Using probability to measure risk
You can use this space to make some notes to remind yourself of your needs in these skills and to
comment on how and why you have answered individual items.
Section 5 randomness and sampling variability
How would you rate your ability in each of the following?
Description of skill topic
Ability scale
No
Some
ability
knowledge
Basic
skill
Proficient
Expert
Understand how common causes (inherent or
natural variation) and special causes (external
source of variation) can impact on a process
Using graphs to illustrate variability
Using summary measures to illustrate
variability
You can use this space to make some notes to remind yourself of your needs in these skills and to
comment on how and why you have answered individual items.
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Section 6 inferring population characteristics from samples
How would you rate your ability in each of the following?
Description of skill topic
Ability scale
No
Some
ability
knowledge
Basic
skill
Proficient
Expert
Estimating parameters of interest (e.g. mean
and standard deviation)
Calculating interval estimates of parameters
Using basic statistical tests e.g. z, t and chisquared tests
Measuring association using correlation
Using simple linear regression
Understand how bias can arise in
measurement
Understand how bias can arise in sampling
Addressing problems of bias
You can use this space to make some notes to remind yourself of your needs in these skills and to
comment on how and why you have answered individual items.
Section 7 Statistical methods
How would you rate your ability in each of the following areas?
Topic
Ability scale
No
Some
ability
knowledge
Basic
skill
Proficient
Expert
Sampling methods
Experimental design
Generalised linear models
Bootstrapping
Bayesian statistics
You can use this space to make some notes to remind yourself of your needs in these skills and to
comment on how and why you have answered individual items.
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Section 8 Statistical Software
Please indicate what statistical software you are familiar with and state your level of ability
for each using the ability scale.
Topic
Ability scale
No
Some
ability
knowledge
Basic
skill
Proficient
Expert
GLIM
Minitab
The R Project
SAS
SPSS
Stata
Excel
Stats in Excel
WINBUGS
Other please specify (you may also comment on how and why you have answered individual items).
Section 9 Experience of statistics at university
Please describe below what statistics you use most:
Please describe below what statistics translates well from study to practice:
Please describe below what aspects of statistics you enjoy:
Please describe below what aspects of statistics you feel less confident about:
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Please indicate the highest level at which your skills in statistics have been assessed.
Level
Tick Box
None
Part of GCSE
Part of GCE A level
Part of first degree
Part of Master degree
Part of other postgraduate qualification
Other please specify (You can also use this space to give details of any of the above)
Once completed you should either show your results to your mentor (if you have one) or use
them to formulate a personal development and training programme.
Date:
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