Question
Background
Rental costs are significant part of the overall cost of a University education for many international students. The student union at a large city-based university is concerned about the affordability and availability of reasonably priced student housing with good public transport access to the campus. They take a survey of two- bedroom apartments within half an hour's travelling time of the campus. Properties are split into two categories, Near which contains properties which had access to public transport to the university within a five minute walk and Other which contains similar properties in the same area but which have poor access to public transport. Data was also collected on the level of Availability of such rental properties within the surrounding area, classified as Low, Medium and High availability. The results are given in the sheet labeled Data in the file
All tables and graphs for this question should be placed in the designated spaces in the Worksheet Results. The first three questions aim to give a picture of the level of availability of rental properties in the areas sampled.
1. Using COUNTIF, construct a frequency distribution for the availability of rental properties. (Complete Table (a)).
2. Provide an appropriate chart showing the percentage of rental properties in each availability category. (Complete Graph(b)).
3. Briefly summarise the information obtained in the above table and graph about the number of rental properties in each category (3 to 4 sentences - Textbox (c)).
The remaining questions are based on analysis of the similarities and differences in weekly rent for those properties which are within a five-minutes walk of public transport (labelled as Near) and properties which do not have easy access to public transport (labelled as Other).
4. Provide a table of summary stats for the weekly rents for each of the Two categories (Near and Other) (Table (d)). Give your answers in this table to two decimal places and make sure you indicate units.
5. Complete the grouped frequency table for the weekly rents for the two categories for the sample (Table (e)). Find frequency and hence calculate percentage frequency for the two categories.
6. Construct percentage frequency polygons of the weekly rents for each of the two categories of rental properties as one chart as Graph a).
7. Comment on the shapes of the two distributions (Textbox (g)).
8. Based on your answers to questions 4, 5 and 6, discuss and compare the central locations of the distributions for different categories of rental properties (Textbox (h)).
9. List the four measures of variability given in the table. The rents of which category of rental property show more variability? (Textbox
10. Comment on any particular interesting and unusual features of the weekly rent distributions for the two categories of rental properties. What conclusions do you think the student union should draw about the affordability of student housing which has easily accessible public transport options to the university? (Textbox 0).
Sorting Data
When sorting a number of columns of data by one variable, remember to highlight the whole block of data (all required rows and columns) first. If you just highlight the column for the variable you are sorting by, then the values of this variable will be separated from the cases to which they belong.
Paste special
When copying and pasting a table, for example into a different worksheet, it is frequently necessary to use the option: Edit Paste Special Values.
Textbox
In order to insert a textbox, first make sure the Insert Toolbar/Ribbon is showing and then click on the textbox icon, la, click in one corner of where you want the textbox, and drag to the required size.