Component 2: Data analysis — Eduqas A-Level Business
Test yourself on Component 2: Data analysis with EDUQAS A-Level practice questions.
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Component 2: Data analysis explained
Eduqas hands you a chart or table in the case study and expects a business decision to come out of it.
Read the full explanation
A pie sector shows one part of a whole at one moment, so it suits market share or a cost breakdown, but it hides absolute size: two fifths of a shrinking market can be fewer units than a quarter of a growing one. A histogram groups a continuous variable such as spend per visit into classes, and where those classes are unequal the vertical axis is frequency density, so the area of a bar rather than its height carries the frequency. An index rebases a series so the base year reads one hundred, which lets you compare sales, wages and raw material costs measured in different units and lets you separate real growth from inflation. The mark is earned by quoting the figure, naming the direction and size of the change, then saying what it does to the named firm's pricing, capacity or cash.
Your focus
- Present, interpret and analyse data, including pie charts, histograms and index numbers
Component 2: Data analysis exam tips
Marking Points
- Quoting the actual figure with its unit and time period before interpreting it, so the examiner can see the data has been read rather than assumed.
- Combining the chart with another source in the case study, for example turning a market share percentage into a revenue figure using total market value.
- Reading an index correctly: a value of one hundred and twelve is twelve per cent above the base year, not twelve per cent growth in the latest year.
- Commenting on how the data is presented, such as a pie chart with no sample size, a histogram with unequal class widths, or a base year chosen in a slump, and what that does to the conclusion.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Data items are usually short two to four mark questions, but the same table reappears in the extended response, so annotate it once on the paper and reuse the readings in the essay.
- 💡When the paper says analyse the data, build one chain from figure to cause to consequence for the business rather than listing three separate readings.
- 💡Where a table prints both a money series and an index series, check which one the question asks for; correct arithmetic on the wrong series earns nothing.
Common Mistakes
- Reading bar height as frequency on a histogram with unequal class widths, when it is the area of the bar that shows the frequency and the axis reads frequency density.
- Claiming a pie chart proves sales rose, when it shows shares of a total at one point in time and says nothing about whether the total itself grew or shrank.
- Treating an index value of one hundred and twenty as twenty per cent growth over the previous year rather than twenty per cent above the base year.