Topic 1 Data Sources #

Question 1

What is primary data

Answer 1

Data you have collected yourself

Question 2

Ways to gather primary data

Answer 2

Questionnaires
interviews
experiments
observations

Question 3

Pros of primary data

Answer 3

Can gather data that directly links to your hypothesis so can answer more specific question
Have complete control over method of collection
So know how reliable the data is

Question 4

Cons of primary data

Answer 4

Might have problems with reliability (people might lie on questionnaires)
Expensive
Time consuming
Might be difficult or impossible to collect your own data

Question 5

What is secondary data

Answer 5

Data that someone else has collected

Question 6

Sources of secondary data

Answer 6

Data has often already been processed
Newspapers
magazines
websites
databases
historical records
office for national statistics

Question 7

Pros of secondary data

Answer 7

Easier to get a hold of
Cheaper
Less time consuming
Data sets often bigger than what you could collect on your own

Question 8

Cons of secondary data

Answer 8

Might be in the wrong format or rounded
Might not be relevant data available
Might be difficult to find data that matches your hypothesis exactly
Don’t know how accurate data is - may be biased or collected poorly