Skip to content
VirtusAcademy

Designing Questionnaires

FoundationHigherAQAEdexcel

Learn Designing Questionnaires for GCSE Statistics with this free worksheet and full mark scheme — Foundation and Higher exam-style questions with worked answers for AQA and Edexcel. Good questionnaire questions are clear and unbiased, with suitable response options and time frames.

Free downloads

These worksheets and mark schemes are original, written for Virtus Academy and checked against the current AQA and Edexcel specifications. Every worksheet comes with a full mark scheme.

Foundation

WorksheetFoundation · PDFMark SchemeFoundation · PDF

Higher

WorksheetHigher · PDFMark SchemeHigher · PDF

Topic overview

A good questionnaire produces data that is accurate and easy to analyse. Poor design introduces bias or makes responses impossible to use.

Questions should be clear and unambiguous, short, and relevant to the hypothesis. Response options should be exhaustive, covering every possible answer, and mutually exclusive, so no answer fits two boxes.

Common faults are examined directly. Leading questions push respondents towards an answer. Overlapping response boxes such as 0–10 and 10–20 leave a respondent answering 10 unsure which to tick. Missing options force respondents to leave a question blank. Sensitive or personal questions may cause people not to respond at all.

Revision notes

What a good question looks like

Clear and unambiguous, so it can only be read one way.

Short and easy to understand. Relevant to the hypothesis being tested. Not leading, not personal or offensive, and not requiring the respondent to do a calculation.

Response boxes

Options must be exhaustive, covering every possible answer, and mutually exclusive, so no answer fits two boxes.

Overlapping boxes such as 0–10 and 10–20 are a common fault. Use \(0 \leq x < 10\) and \(10 \leq x < 20\) instead. Always include an option such as 'more than 20' so no respondent is excluded.

Improving a poor question

Identify the specific fault, then rewrite to remove it.

Exam questions usually ask both for the criticism and the improvement, so give both. Saying a question is 'bad' without naming the fault earns nothing.

Key points

  • Questions must be clear and unambiguous.
  • Response options must be exhaustive.
  • Response options must be mutually exclusive.
  • Overlapping boxes are a common fault.
  • Leading questions cause bias.
  • Personal questions reduce the response rate.

Worked examples

Example 1

A questionnaire uses the response boxes 0–10, 10–20 and 20–30. Give one criticism. [1 mark]

Working

The boxes overlap, so someone answering 10 or 20 does not know which box to tickidentify the overlap

Example 2

A question asks 'Do you agree that homework is too hard?' Criticise this question and suggest an improvement. [2 marks]

Working

It is a leading question, because it pushes the respondent towards agreeinggive the criticism
A better version is 'How would you describe the difficulty of your homework?' with options from very easy to very hardgive the improvement

Example 3

Explain what is meant by exhaustive response options. [2 marks]

Working

Every possible answer is covered by one of the optionsdefine the term
so no respondent is left unable to answer the questionexplain why it matters

Common mistakes

  • Saying a question is bad without naming the fault.

    Identify the specific problem — overlapping, leading, ambiguous or personal.

  • Giving a criticism without an improvement.

    Questions usually ask for both.

  • Using overlapping response boxes in your own improvement.

    Use inequalities so each value fits exactly one box.

  • Forgetting an option for large values.

    Include 'more than' so the options are exhaustive.

Exam tips

  • Name the specific fault, then rewrite the question.
  • Use inequalities to avoid overlapping boxes.
  • Always include an option covering all remaining values.
  • Learn the words exhaustive and mutually exclusive.

Key terms

Leading question
A question pushing the respondent towards an answer.
Exhaustive
Covering every possible answer.
Mutually exclusive
No answer fits more than one option.
Ambiguous
Open to more than one interpretation.

Related topics

Written and reviewed against the current AQA and Edexcel specifications. Spotted an error? Let us know.