Students were studying shopping services in their local town. The students decided to investigate the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: People travel further to bigger shopping centres. Hypothesis 2: The most common way to travel to shopping centres is by car. The three shopping centres which the students chose were: • the Central Business District (CBD) located in the town centre; • a Secondary Shopping Centre located along a main road into the town centre; • a small Neighbourhood (Suburban) Shopping Centre located in a housing estate.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2011). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [2] Will not get a distance as an answer / too vague / generic; Too intrusive for people to answer / privacy issues / security / embarrassing; Students may not know the town / village; Information not appropriate as shoppers may be there for work / tourism so where they live irrelevant; Information not needed / irrelevant for hypothesis / may be too much
2. [1] Sampling with an even / regular / equal distributions; e.g. asking every 10th person to answer questionnaire; NOT Orderly or In a sequence.
3. [1] Fair method of deciding who to interview; Removes possible bias of who is interviewed / student influence / choice removed; NOT easy / quick / simple / accurate.
4. [2] YES: enough people to be a fair sample (1) to get variety of age / gender (1) do-able in the time (1); NO: maybe not enough for a fair sample (1) may miss some age / gender info (1); Because should vary numbers interviewed at each centre (1)
5. [2] Working: (4 x 0.5) + (1 x 17) + (2 x 4) + (3 x 2) + (4 x 2) + (5 x 1) / 30 OR (2 + 17 + 8 + 6 + 8 + 5) / 30 OR Average distance = 46 / 30 (1) = 1.5 km or 1.53 km (1) Must state km. Accept: 23 / 15
6. [1] 2 No need to state km in table.
7. [2] Plot points on CBD graph on Fig. 14. Must be plotted on CBS graph not others.; Plots at: 1 / 27, 1 / 29, 1 plot at 1 / 30 and 1 plot at 2 / 30; 4 correct = 2 marks; 2/3 correct = 1mark; 0/1 correct = 0 marks
8. [4] Hypothesis correct / agree / people do travel further to bigger shopping centres (1). No marks at all if disagree / partially agree.; Evidence must be from Fig. 14.; 1 data mark reserved for use of statistics up to max 2.; Longest distance travelled to CBD (1) up to 30km (1) but up to 10 km Secondary (1) and 5km or less for Neighbourhood (1); Secondary distance more than Neighbourhood (1) up to 10 km (1) but 5km or less in Neighbourhood (1); Average distance travelled longest to CBD (1) at 12.1km (1) but 2.7 km to secondary centre (1) and 1.5 / 1.53 km to (1) (1HA + 1D + 2) OR (1HA + 2D + 1) = [4]
9. [3] Examples (NOT Higher quality shops); More shops; Greater choice / variety / type of shops; High order / more expensive / specialist goods in bigger centres / low order cheapest in smaller centres; Go less frequently to big centres so willing to travel further; Larger shopping centres have other services e.g. banks / cinemas; Access issues – disabled / public transport / car parking; Personal preference / quality of service; Environment issues -clean / not smelly / crowded / security
10. [2] Secondary centre pie graph completion for walk (60°) and bus (120°).; 1 mark for dividing line with 5 degree tolerance (235–245 from 240); 1 mark for shading both correctly
11. [3] Yes / Agree / Partially / not fully / almost / to some extent support hypothesis (1). No marks at all for Disagree.; If Partial agreement:; Yes for CBD (1) – 18 travel by car (1) majority / highest number / most (1); Partially for secondary centre (1) highest number (1) 12 travel by car (1), but 10 travel by bus (1) NOT most / majority; No for neighbourhood centre (1) – 4 travel by car (1) but 21 / most walk (1); If Yes for overall view; Overall true as 34 / 90 highest number / most common (1) over 1/3rd / less than half travel by car (1) more than each of other types (1) but not most / majority (1)[1HA + 2 = 3]
12. [3] Distance / proximity / closeness to travel to shopping centre; Likely duration of visit / how long shoppers stay / time to shop; What / how much they are buying / weight / size / quantity; Access / availability of regular bus service / public transport / disabled use; Availability / cost of car parking; Weather conditions e.g. more likely to travel by car if raining; Level of car ownership / do shoppers own a car; Green / environmental concerns / responsibility; Cost of travel / can't afford petrol / bus; Traffic jams / congestion must be qualified; Personal preference / age must be qualified
13. [4] Questionnaire / interview / ask patrons / shoppers / customers (1) NOT shopkeepers; Ask at a range of shops / corner shops to large centres; Question: where they live; Mark locations on a map; Draw desire lines / isolines / flow lines of customers to different shops; Delimit hinterland areas of different shops; Find out and map delivery areas of shops; Find out where advertising is done and map area e.g. local newspapers; Compare results for different shops / shopping centres; NOT Do it in pairs / groups. Refs to distance or direction needs qualifying.