Lesson S2.4.1

S2.4.1 Outliers in data Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Maths, Unit 12

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson S2.4.1, Outliers in data: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Maths (9MA0), Unit 12: Data presentation and interpretation, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What common visual tool is primarily used to initially spot potential outliers in numerical data?

    • Frequency polygon
    • Pie chart
    • Bar chart
    • Box plot

  2. Which numerical measure of central tendency is most affected by the presence of data outliers?

    • Mean
    • Mode
    • Median
    • Interquartile range

  3. Which measure of spread is least affected by the presence of extreme outliers in a dataset?

    • Range
    • Variance
    • Standard deviation
    • Interquartile range

  4. In a box plot, what name is given to individual data points that lie beyond the whiskers?

    • Anomalies
    • Residuals
    • Extremes
    • Outliers

  5. Standard statistical convention often flags any data value greater than Q3 plus how many times the IQR as an outlier?

    • 1.0
    • 1.5
    • 3.0
    • 2.0

  6. Standard statistical convention flags any data value less than Q1 minus how many times the IQR as an outlier?

    • 2.0
    • 1.0
    • 2.5
    • 1.5

  7. Using standard normal distribution criteria, values lying more than how many standard deviations from the mean are often flagged?

    • 2.5
    • 3
    • 1
    • 2

  8. What is the primary reason an identified data outlier might be cleaned or removed from a dataset?

    • High skewness
    • Large variance
    • Small sample size
    • Recording error

  9. What action should you take if an identified outlier turns out to be a genuine, valid extreme data value?

    • Delete it
    • Average it
    • Retain it
    • Halve it

  10. If a dataset has a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 5, what value marks 2 standard deviations above the mean?

    • 60
    • 65
    • 40
    • 55

  11. Which graphical display directly plots bivariate data to help identify bivariate outliers or anomalies?

    • Pie chart
    • Cumulative frequency graph
    • Scatter diagram
    • Histogram

  12. When calculating cleaning limits for a normal distribution, how many standard deviations from the mean is a stricter outlier test?

    • 1
    • 1.5
    • 2
    • 3

  13. What term describes data values that are unusually large or small compared to the rest of the dataset?

    • Outliers
    • Residuals
    • Parameters
    • Quartiles

  14. If cleaning a dataset by removing an outlier, what happens to the reliability of subsequent parametric analysis?

    • Decreases
    • Becomes zero
    • Increases
    • Stays same

  15. In a box plot, what do the ends of the whiskers typically represent if no outliers are present beyond them?

    • Mean
    • Extreme values
    • Quartiles
    • Mode

  16. Which measure of location remains completely unaffected by the presence of extreme data outliers?

    • Total sum
    • Median
    • Mean
    • Variance

  17. What is the interquartile range (IQR) if the lower quartile is 14 and the upper quartile is 38?

    • 12
    • 52
    • 24
    • 26

  18. What mathematical term describes the process of correcting or omitting corrupted data points before analysis?

    • Data rounding
    • Data cleaning
    • Data sorting
    • Data scaling

  19. If a data value is flagged as an outlier using the IQR rule, what symbol or name is often given to it on a modified box plot?

    • A shaded bar
    • An asterisk
    • A dashed line
    • A cross

  20. When testing a normal distribution for outliers, what percentage of data typically lies beyond 2.69 standard deviations?

    • 0.7%
    • 5%
    • 1%
    • 0.3%

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