Survey for GCSE Project

[John H-T]

Gentlemen please will you look at the answers already given to J4Y which I think are realistic and genuine. Then if you need clarification or more information post carefully thought out extension questions and I for one will do my best to answer them. I think that J4Y did get some good info so start from there.

Above all remember that you are asking us to give time to answer. Be polite and hope that you get what you need. This is the nature of research and it can be quite daunting!

Best wishes,

John H-T.

[JimRBRobinson]

Just as a thought, but I recall back when I was at school (17 years since I finished high school) we did a project which involved surveys. I remember we worked in teams of four and my team got extra credit for including obviously 'wrong' answers, and explaining how we had allowed for them in our analysis and conclusion. In any survey, some will take delight in giving you garbage, but good data analysis means you don't ignore them, or sweep them under the carpet. You still account for them in your work.

And, in answer to Hawker's questions:

1. How old are you? 33

2. How many models on average do you buy a month? Varies - sometimes 2 or 3 in a month, then there may be a couple of months where I buy. Depends what I need at the time.

3. What scale do you prefer to use? 00

3. How much would you be willing to pay for an average sized model? Again depends on how it meets my needs at the time. I've never spent more than £30 in a single purchase.

4. How long would you spend on making an average sized model? Again, not easy to answer - they are a labour of love and take as long as they take to get right. Last model I made represented about 30-hours work on total from preparation, to construction, to painting. That 30 hours or so took four weeks of my spare time though.

5. Which material do you prefer to work with? I use a lot of polystyrene, balsa wood, matchsticks, occasionally vacuum-form plastic. Not very much metalwork but I've done some.

6. Do you buy models from shops or from the internet? Usually model shops as I like to see what I'm buying.

7. What theme of model railway are you most interested in? End of steam to childhood memories for me so it's pretty much 1960's to late 1980s.

Hope this is helpful and good luck with the work.

[Toddington Ted]

Questionnaires have limitations as data-gathering tools. If you get a 50% return on your target audience then you are doing very well. You need to know who your target audience is and how to phrase the questions. Why is age important for example? Data collection relies on more than one method to increase its accuracy (interviews, written evidence, focus groups etc - yes, guess who is doing a PGCE at the moment!) and people who design accurate questionnaires for organisations get well paid for doing so. Therefore I will not criticise the attempts I've seen here on the forum. What the GCSE syllabus probably doesn't include is politeness and deference to seniority and experience - sadly lacking in some of our more youthful followers but only some I'd hasten to add (although the media would have us believe otherwise of course). In addition, many questionnaire fillers will want to know the "what's in it for me" aspect. If the aim of the questionnaire is to provide data to produce better model buildings for model railway enthusiasts then they might respond more readily than if its for some poor sod who wants to get a GCSE in some subject that a future employer only looks at and says "What in the name of sanity is that?"