Tally marking
Also called: Tally marks · Topic: Economic Data: Census, NSS, Surveys and Statistical Tools · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Organisation of Data"; Class 11, Ch 8 "Use of Statistical Tools"
Meaning
Tally marking is a quick way to count how many observations fall into each class of a frequency distribution. You go through the raw data one item at a time and put a stroke (/) against the class that item belongs to. The strokes are grouped in fives: four upright strokes, then a fifth stroke drawn across them. Blocks of five are fast to count and reduce counting mistakes. The total number of strokes in a class is its class frequency.
Example
Suppose 8 of NCERT's 100 students scored in the 10-20 marks class. The tally for that class is one crossed block of five plus three strokes: 𝍸 ///, which gives a frequency of 8.
Don't confuse with
- Frequency: the final number, 8 in this example. The tally marks are only the counting tool used to reach it.