Statistics Post 3

Statistical Inquiry Cycle
A very common thing for all people to know is how to compare groups.  If I said which fish is bigger, snapper from Waihi or snapper from Whitianga?  I would expect you to approach the problem in a systematic way. 

We call this the "Statistical Inquiry Cycle" and it's summed up in the acronym PPDAC [you absolutely must learn this].  It is a way of approaching the answer correctly. 

In statistics there rarely is the right answer.  Say if we said the that average year 9 at Waihi College weighed 53.4kg.  It would be very unlikely that the a randomly selected student would actually weigh 53.4kg. 

PPDAC stands for...

• P roblem
• P lan
• D ata
• A nalysis
• C onclusion

Here is the summary poster that shows how PPDAC is a cycle that repeats upon itself.  It was invented by Auckland University Statistics Department and is the cornerstone of NCEA Stats - you can get about 50 NCEA credits directly from being good at PPDAC.

The PPDAC Cycle