Question

6.1 Develop a Pareto chart of the following causes of poor grades on an exam:

REASONS FOR POOR GRADE	FREQUENCY
Insufficient time to complete	15
Late start taking exam	7
Difficulty understanding material	25
Insufficient preparation time	6
Studied wrong material	2
Distractions in exam room	9
Technical difficulty with computer during exam	1
Forgot exam was scheduled	3
Felt ill during exam	4

Please help and show step by step so I can see where I went wrong. Thanks

Answer 1

Pareto Chart for the given table:

REASONS FOR POOR GRADE	FREQUENCY
Insufficient time to complete	15
Late start taking exam	7
Difficulty understanding material	25
Insufficient preparation time	6
Studied wrong material	2
Distractions in exam room	9
Technical difficulty with computer during exam	1
Forgot exam was scheduled	3
Felt ill during exam	4

Solution:

Fig 1: Calculation for drawing a Pareto Chart

Fig 2: Pareto Chart

Step for drawing the PARETO CHART:

Step1: Draw the Table Shown in Figure 1. Table Columns are Shortcut Name, Reasons for a poor grade, Frequency, Cumulative Frequency, and Percentage %.

Step 2: Arrange the Reasons in ascending order of Frequency. For the sake of simplicity, I have named the reasons with shortcuts A, B, C, D....I.

Step 3: Calculate the Cumulative Frequency.

Step 4: The Percentage Column is calculated by dividing the Cumulative Frequency by 72.

Step 5: Let's draw the Pareto Chart now.

Step 6:On The Y-axis draw Frequency (Here Highest Frequency is 25) and draw % on Right side of Y-axis.

Step 7: The First Reason A: Difficulty understanding the material has frequency 25. A Column is drawn with name A and height equal to frequency ie 25.

Step 8: The Second Reason B: Insufficient time to complete has frequency 15. A Column is drawn with name B and height equal to frequency ie 15. And so on continue the process till Reason I: Technical difficulty.

Step 9:Now refer the right-hand side Y-axis (% Axis). The % for Reason A: Difficulty understanding the material is 35.71. Hence a point is marked at 35.71 in the middle of the column A.

Step 10: The % for Reason B: Insufficient time to complete is 55.55. Hence a point is marked at 55.5 (Approx) in the middle of the column B. And this process is done for C, D, E, F, G, H, I.

Step 11: The points are joined and the Pareto Chart is ready.