Question Video: True or False About Definitions of Primary and Secondary Data Mathematics

Video Transcript

Which of the following statements is not true?

And we’re given five statements which we shall look at in turn. Statement (A) says, “Primary data is data collected by the researcher themselves.” Well, this is essentially the definition of primary data. It’s new data that’s collected by the researcher themselves or by somebody collecting it on their behalf. Therefore, statement (A) is a true statement. The statement in option (B) is “Web pages are a source of secondary data.” We can remember that secondary data is something which is collected and organized by others, and so websites or web pages can be a good source of secondary data. This is a true statement.

Statement (C) says, “Secondary data is data collected by the researcher themselves.” As we saw in statement (A), it’s primary data when the data is collected by the researcher themselves. Therefore, this statement is false. Let’s have a look at the remaining two statements. Statement (D) says, “Questionnaires are a source of primary data,” and statement (E) says, “Focus groups are a source of primary data.” Both questionnaires and focus groups are data collection methods which give new information which can be collected and organized by the researcher themselves. Since both of these are primary data sources, then both statement (D) and (E) are true. Therefore, the statement that is not true is statement (C): secondary data is data collected by the researcher themselves.