Question

Question 10(Multiple Choice Worth 1 points)

(05.02 MC)

The table below shows data from a survey about the amount of time students spend doing homework each week. The students were in either college or high school:


High Low Q1 Q3 IQR Median Mean σ
College 50 6 8.5 17 8.5 12 15.4 11.7
High School 28 3 4.5 15 10.5 11 10.5 5.8


Which of the choices below best describes how to measure the spread of these data?
(Hint: Use the minimum and maximum values to check for outliers.)
Both spreads are best described by the IQR.
Both spreads are best described by the standard deviation.
The college spread is best described by the IQR. The high school spread is best described by the standard deviation.
The college spread is best described by the standard deviation. The high school spread is best described by the IQR.

Answer 1

The college spread is best described by the IQR. The high school spread is best described by the standard deviation.

Explanation:

The college data has large outliers which skews the data, therefore the IQR is better measure of spread.

The high school data does not appear to be skewed so the standard deviation is fine as a measure of spread.