Question

Mr. Brown recorded the final exam scores for his fifth period math class in the histogram below.

Which of the following would be the best measure of center?
A.
mean
B.
median
C.
interquartile range
D.
mean absolute deviation

Answer 1

A. Mean. This would give the class average.

Answer 2

The best measure of center for the given histogram is: B) median.

The median is the middle value of a dataset when it is written in order. For a symmetric histogram like the one given, the median is the same as the mean.

The other options are not the best measures of center:

Mean: As mentioned earlier, the mean would be pulled towards the higher scores due to the skewness, making it less representative of the typical student's score.

Interquartile Range (IQR): The IQR is a measure of spread and does not provide information about the center of the data.

Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD): The MAD is also a measure of spread and does not provide information about the center of the data.

However, the median is a more robust measure of center than the mean, as it is not affected by outliers. Therefore, the median is the best measure of center for this histogram.