EXAMINATION NO.

____________________

2014 EXAMINATIONS
ACCOUNTING TECHNICIAN PROGRAMME
PAPER TC 3: BUSINESS MATHEMATICS & STATISTICS
MONDAY 1 DECEMBER 2014 TIME ALLOWED : 3 HOURS
9.00AM - 12.00 NOON

INSTRUCTIONS

1. You are allowed 15 minutes reading time before the examination begins during which you should
read the question paper and, if you wish, make annotations on the question paper. However, you
are not allowed, under any circumstances, to open the answer book and start writing or use your
calculator during this reading time.

2. Number of questions on paper - 9.

3. The paper is divided into Sections A and B. ALL questions to be answered in Section A and
ANY TWO from Section B.

4. The maximum number of marks for each answer is indicated against each question.

5. Formulae Sheets and Graph Paper are provided.

6. Use of non-programmable calculators is allowed.

7. Show all your workings in order to gain full marks. Method marks will be awarded throughout.

8. Final answers must be given correct to 2 decimal places where necessary.

9. Begin each answer on a fresh page.

10. DO NOT OPEN THIS PAPER UNTIL YOU ARE INSTRUCTED BY THE
INVIGILATOR.

This question paper contains 6 pages

This question paper must not be removed from the examination hall.
 1

SECTION A

Answer ALL questions in this section

1. (a) Simplify the following:

a  22  1  a 2 . 4 Marks
3 1  a   a
b c  13  d 
(b) Calculate the value of A using the formula, A  , when b  2
2e  3 f
c  3 , d  2 , e  8 and f  4 . 4 Marks
(TOTAL: 8 MARKS)

 2  3 4 1 0 
2. (a) Let A    , B    and C    .
5 1    1 3  2

Required:

Evaluate the following:

(i) AB 3 Marks
1
(ii) C 3 Marks

(b) Solve the following inequality:

2 x  1 7  5x
 3 4 Marks
5 4
(TOTAL: 10 MARKS)

3. (a) (i) State the difference between data and information. 2 Marks

(ii) Mention any three characteristics of good information. 3 Marks

(b) An item sells for K840, inclusive of 16.5% value added tax (VAT). A few weeks
later, the revenue authority increased the VAT rate to 17.5%.

Required:

Find the new selling price of the item. (Give your answer to the nearest
Kwacha). 4 Marks
(TOTAL: 9 MARKS)

Continued/......
 2

4. (a) Ziboliboli Enterprises sells a bawo board at K1,000 each. If it sells x boards
daily, its revenue (K y ) is represented by the function:
y  1000 x .
The daily fixed costs of producing one board are K10,000, and the variable costs
are K600. The daily total costs (K) are therefore given by the function:
y  10000  600 x
Required:

(i) Plot the graphs of these two functions for the daily production figures ( x )
from 0 to 40 in steps of 10. 6 Marks

(ii) Use the graphs to find the quantity for which the cost and revenue are equal.
2 Marks
(iii) Name this point where cost and revenue are equal. 1 Mark

(b) The marks obtained by 16 students in a mid-semester test were as follows:

20 15 13 6 12 11 18 17
18 17 17 9 8 14 2 16

Required:

(i) What is the mean mark obtained by the group? 2 Marks

(ii) Find the variance of the marks obtained. 3 Marks
(TOTAL: 14 MARKS)

5. (a) Study the table Below:

Term Description

(i) histogram I. comprises a set of small pictures

(ii) discrete data II. segments or slices represent categories
(iii) ordinal scale III. can only take a limited number of values
(iv) pictograph IV. each block represents a class
(v) pie chart V. data is shown simply in order of
magnitude

Required:

Match the terms on the left with the descriptions on the right hand side of the
table. 5 Marks

Continued/......
 3

(b) Ajimwiche purchases twenty cases of Product A at K784 per case, ten cases of
Product B at K820 per case, twelve cases of Product C at K850 per case and a
number of cases of Product D at K860 per case. He spends K46,980 in total.

Required

If there are twelve items in each case of Product D, find the total number of items
of Product D that he bought. 6 Marks
(TOTAL: 11 MARKS)

6. A company made the following profits over a four year period of trading:

Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Profits 1.2 1.5 1.8 1.9 1.6 1.5 1.7

(K million)

Required:

(a) Using 2010 as the base year, calculate the profit index for each year.
4 Marks
(b) Plot the profit index numbers on a scatter graph.
4 Marks
(TOTAL: 8 MARKS)

Continued/......
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SECTION B
Answer any TWO questions from this section

7. (a) Suppose you plan to invest equal amounts of money in each of five business
ventures. There are 20 ventures from which you can make the selection.

Required:

How many different samples of five ventures can be selected from the 20
ventures? 2 Marks

(b) Describe any two investment appraisal techniques. Your answer should
include how each technique is applied, giving two advantages and two
disadvantages. 12 Marks

(c) Ujeni Bank has offered an investor two ways of investing K20,000 for a
period of 10 years as follows:

Option A offers 1.5% interest compounded every 3 months;

Option B offers 3.2% interest compounded every 6 months.

Required:

Advise the investor on which option to take. Give reasons for your choice of
option. 6 Marks

(TOTAL: 20 MARKS)

Continued/......
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8. (a) The six most common last names at ICAM University are Phiri, Banda, Tembo,
Mkandawire, Nkhoma and Mbewe. A sample of 25 students with one of these
last names provided the following data:

Nkhoma Mbewe Banda Nkhoma Mbewe

Banda Nkhoma Mkandawire Tembo Phiri
Nkhoma Tembo Banda Nkhoma Mkandawire
Banda Mbewe Tembo Banda Mbewe
Banda Tembo Banda Phiri Phiri

Required:

Summarize the data by constructing the following:

(i) a relative frequency distribution 5 Marks

(ii) a pie chart of radius 2 cm. 4 Marks
(iii) Based on these data, what is the modal last name? 1 Mark

(b) (i) State the difference between regression and correlation. 2 Marks

(ii) Researchers at the Road Traffic Directorate are trying to find out how
the age of cars affects their breaking capability. They test a group of
ten cars of differing ages and record their minimum stopping distances.
The results are set out in the following table.

Car A B C D E F G H I J

Age (months) 9 15 24 30 38 46 53 60 64 76

Minimum stopping 28.4 29.3 37.6 36.2 36.5 35.3 36.2 44.1 44.8 47.2
distance at 40 KPH
(in metres)

Required:
Find the Spearman‟s rank correlation coefficient and comment on the result
obtained. 8 Marks
(TOTAL: 20 MARKS)

Continued/......
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9. (a) The production manager of a company estimates that the production costs of x
items of a product called „nguli‟ is given by

Cx   75,000  100 x  0.03x 2  0.000004 x 3 , 0  x  10,000

while the demand function for nguli is

p x   200  0.005x , 0  x  10,000 .

The company sells exactly what it produces.

Required:
Determine the following when 7,500 ngulis are sold and interpret the results based
on the :
(i) marginal cost 4 Marks
(ii) marginal profit. 7 Marks

(b) The following table shows the results of a random survey. One variable is the age
group of the respondents and the other variable is the response to the statement
“ICAM examinations are easy”.

Age group Response to the statement

(years) Agree No view Disagree Total

Under 25 45 16 21 82
25 to 44 55 7 16 78

45 to 64 15 6 61 82

Above 64 11 12 35 58

Total 126 41 133 300

Required:

i) With the age group on the horizontal axis, construct a multiple bar chart to
represent the data. 6 Marks
ii) What is the probability that a respondent disagrees with the statement or is in
the 25 to 44 age group? 3 Marks
(TOTAL: 20 MARKS)

END