The answer
(a) the male rate peaks in the same 30 to 34 band in both years but is higher across the ages in 2014
(b) broadly supported: the male peak (30 to 34) is in a higher age band than the female peak (25 to 29)
O-Level E-Math 2018 Paper 1 Question 6 · Verified worked solution by the Genius Plus Academy teaching team
What this question tests
This is Question 6 of the O-Level E-Math 2018 Paper 1. It tests reading a peak/modal class from a curve, in the Data handling (interpreting line graphs) area. It is worth 2 marks: 1 + 1. It is a worded / diagram-based question, so open your Ten-Year Series (TYS) or the official paper at this question, then follow our full worked solution below.
(a) Reading the male chart: in both 2004 and 2014 the marriage rate rises to a maximum in the 30 to 34 age group and then falls, but the whole 2014 curve sits above the 2004 curve, so males married at broadly the same ages in 2014 as in 2004 while the rate at each age was higher. (Any single valid comment that compares the two male curves is acceptable.)
(b) The male curve peaks at 30 to 34, while the female curve peaks at 25 to 29, one age band lower. So the charts do support Huma's claim in the sense that the most common marrying age for males (30 to 34) is higher than that for females (25 to 29). (This is an interpretive part; an answer is credited if it points to the peak age bands on the two 2014 curves.)
Answer: (a) the male rate peaks in the same 30 to 34 band in both years but is higher across the ages in 2014
(b) broadly supported: the male peak (30 to 34) is in a higher age band than the female peak (25 to 29)
Same structure, different numbers
Swap the constants, dress a quadratic as a length, hide a derivative inside an integral, and a student sees a brand new problem. The structure underneath is the same, and so is the method. Once a student can name the structure, a whole row of questions that look different start to open the same way.
That is where marks really leak: in choosing the method, not in the algebra that follows. We call it Lock and Key, name the lock, then the key follows.
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Genius Plus Academy · O-Level & IP Mathematics
Our O-Level E-Math tuition trains the same recognise-the-structure method these worked solutions show, taught by a team that has marked these papers for years. It runs within our weekly Secondary Math programme, Sec 1 to 4 and IP.
It is a reading a peak/modal class from a curve question from Data handling (interpreting line graphs), worth 2 marks: 1 + 1.
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