From 11 positive integer scores on a 10-point quiz, the mean is 8, the median is 8, and the mode is 7. Find the maximum number of perfect scores possible on this test.

Answer 1

total points = 11*8 = 88
So, with median 8, the scores are
x x x x x 8 x x x x x
If the mode is 7, then for max scores of 10, we want the fewest under 8:
x x x 7 7 8 x x x x x
Now we cannot have duplicate scores below 7 (only one mode), so
1 2 3 7 7 8 x x x x x
They have to add up to 88, so since the bottom 6 scores add to 28, that leaves 60 points for the top 5 scores. If they were all 10's, that would only be 50 points, so we need another 10 points among the low scores. If we add 3 to the bottom scores, that is only 9 more, so let's have a 3rd 7 score, giving us
4 5 7 7 7 8 10 10 10 10 10