A-level results day has arrived, with millions of students across the country anxiously awaiting their grades this Thursday morning (August 15).
For some, it’s a moment of joy when they find out if college is coming, while for others, this day is likely to be forgotten. As students prepare to discover their destiny, we thought we’d test your knowledge.
You might not remember how challenging your A-levels were, so why not jog your memory?
TikTok user @freemathstutor_uk, who has 64,100 followers, shared a tricky math question that will leave you scratching your head.
If you think it’s easy because it’s just numbers, you’re in for a surprise. In a recent video, the instructor released an A level paper 3 maths question on the “must know” topic.
The question is: “The team game involves solving puzzles to escape from a room. Based on past data, the average time to solve puzzles and escape from one room is 65 minutes with a standard deviation of 11.3 minutes.
“After recent changes to the puzzles in the room, it has been claimed that the average time to solve the puzzles and escape has changed. To test this claim, a random sample of 100 teams is selected.
“The total time it takes for 100 teams to solve the puzzles and escape is 6,780 minutes. Assuming the times are normally distributed, test at the 2% level that the mean time has changed.”
A TikTok user gave a detailed explanation of how to approach the seemingly tricky question. First, you need to understand what the average is: it is the sum of all the numbers divided by the number of these numbers.
Then it is important to describe the original data distribution. The instructor will present the given configuration, which you can use to calculate the answer.
He decided that there was evidence that the average time had changed.
After complex calculations for the seven-point question, the instructor concluded, “Therefore, we reject H0 (the null hypothesis) and there is sufficient evidence that the mean time has changed.”
Since its recent release, the video has garnered over 1,900 likes and numerous comments. One TikTok user expressed his gratitude: “Wonderful thanks!” Another commented: “I’m so mature.”
A third viewer asked, “Why is the sample mean still 65? Shouldn’t it be 67.8?” The user clarified: “No, it’s the mean of the sample mean distribution, which is still the same as the original population mean, so it’s 65.”
