Interpreting data: boxplots and tables

Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

  • understand and use the following terms: boxplots, box, whisker, upper and lower adjacent values, rate, time series, line plot
  • demonstrate an awareness of the idea that the general pattern of a set of data, in terms of location, dispersion and skewness, can be graphically represented in a boxplot
  • understand that boxplots can be used to provide a quick and simple comparison of data sets
  • understand that patterns in tabular data can be made clearer by leaving out unhelpful information, by including extra pieces of useful information, or by drawing appropriate graphs
  • describe and compare data sets on the basis of boxplots.