A test given to a class of students revealed that most did quite well, and only a few did very poorly. How would you describe the distribution of test scores? Would you want to report the mean, median, or mode for this distribution? Please explain the answer.

Answer 1

It seems like your distribution is negatively skewed (skewed left, with the tail pointing to the left on a frequency distribution).

The mean (as a balance point for the distribution) is most influenced by deviant scores, and the mode just indicates what value had the most scores. Thus the median would be the most central of the measures of central tendency.

Does that help?

Answer 2

Can you explain this in alittle more detail? I am having a hard time understanding.

Answer 3

What don't you understand?

Make up a frequency distribution that fits the above description.

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Insert numerical values and find the measures of central tendency for that distribution to see where they are. Does this help a little more?