I. Things Learned and Insights

I have learned lots of things in this lesson. Although this topic was already introduced when I was in my Grade 9 days, I came to forget it since it’s math and it deals with numbers, which I hated. But now, It’s actually really useful for me. I find it really fun to deal with and challenging to answer since it requires long solutions.

I would say I have learned many things about the Measures of Position. But since this was already discussed when I was in Grade 9, the more appropriate term would be “review.” However, during those days, I did not fully understand it and realized I still had so much to learn.

Measures of position are techniques that divide a set of data into equal groups. To determine the measurement of position, the data must be sort from lowest to highest. To find the needed data, there are actually three different measures you could use depending on the information you are trying to acquire. These are: Quartile, Decile, Percentile of the grouped and ungrouped data.

QUARTILES
The quartiles are three values of the variable that divide an ordered data set and distribution into four equal parts. Twenty-five percent (25%) of the distribution are below the first quartile, fifty percent (50%) are below the second quartile, and seventy-five percent (75%) are below the third quartile. Q1 is called the lower quartile and Q3 is the upper quartile. The Q2 is also known as the median

Fact: The difference between Q3 and Q1 is the interquartile range.

PERCENTILE

Percentiles are the ninety-nine score points which divide a distribution into one hundred equal parts so that each part represents 1/100 of the data set. They are used to characterize values according to the percentage below them.

DECILES

Last but definitely not the least are the deciles. Deciles are similar to quartiles and have the same sense. But while quartiles are dividing the distribution into four parts, deciles are the nine score the nine score points which divide a distribution into ten equal parts. These deciles will be denoted as D1, D2, D3… D9.

II. Concept Map

III. Difficulties

When I first got a look on the complex-looking formulas in the measures of position in Grade 9, I got really confused and all things just seemed to lose sense. I did not understand everything at once since some terms were really unfamiliar to me. When I was a kid, I always feared the day that I would come face to face with the symbols in math that looked weird, yet, here it is.

An example of this is the summation sign. It looked really complicated at first but when we discussed it, I was actually just overreacting.

I also had a difficulty in memorizing the formulas. In our Grade 10 math book under the lesson “Quartiles” in the ungrouped data, there were FOUR formulas to memorize. Just in that measure of position alone. These formulas would be used in accordance with the case of your data.

Assuming that the same concept were applicable to Percentiles and Deciles, I thought that we were to memorize these many formulas. But I was wrong. There were actually just two formulas to memorize which is for the grouped and ungrouped data.

I also have a difficulty in setting the numbers in order (especially with the ungrouped data). When I do a list of the numbers, I often skip one number and don’t know what it is. And since I don’t have the last one number, I can’t proceed with my solution. When this happens, I’m unfortunately forced to start back over again.

IV. Unforgettable Memories/Experiences

I have mentioned a while ago that I really HATED dealing with numbers and everything math. I’ll tell you why I used “past tense.”

One of my most unforgettable experience was when I started to get to know the subject, “Statistics” which was introduced to me during our Grade 9 days. Even before, I have always come to hate math since I don’t really like dealing with numbers. So when I heard that we will have another subject and it was related with math, I immediately felt down and thought, “How will I be able to survive in this school? There’s too much math.”

HOWEVER, things started to change when we discussed about it step by step. From the basics to the most complicated one and guess what? I surprisingly understood it all. It wasn’t actually that complicated if you just try to understand what’s written.

All the complex formulas started to look really simple (maybe because we were allowed to use a calculator at that time. Nonetheless, it was a great experience). With the efforts of my classmates and friends in making me understand and decipher the codes – I mean, formulas, I now find it challenging and really fun to do. Plus, you can also form bonds with them while studying as a group!

So when I tell you I HATED statistics and everything math-related, I mean the past.  Then I reached Grade 10. That’s when I came to know that it’s very useful having it discussed in Grade 9. We discussed this lesson during this quarter but since I understood the process, it still stuck in my mind and how it was very useful for my life.  I did not have that much of a difficulty understanding what’s in the book because of that experience. And right now, I could say that this is my favorite lesson so far.


MARY DIVINE L. GARGANTIEL