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A teacher wants to calculate a class average on the last test. One student made a significantly lower score than the rest of the class because he failed to follow instructions. Which measure of center would be best for the teacher to use to get an accurate idea on how well the class as a whole performed on the last test?

A. mode
B. median
C. mean
D. range

User Fitz
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2 Answers

6 votes

Final answer:

The median is the best measure of center for the teacher to use to evaluate the overall performance of the class on a test when the data set includes an outlier.

Step-by-step explanation:

The most appropriate measure of center for the teacher to use in this situation is the median. This is because the median is the best measurement when a data set contains outliers or extreme values that could significantly skew the mean. Since the dataset contains a student score that is significantly lower due to not following instructions, the median would provide a more accurate idea of how the class as a whole performed, as it is less affected by this outlier. On the other hand, the mode might not be as informative if most of the scores are unique, and the mean would be substantially affected by the low score. The range is a measure of spread, not center, and therefore not suitable for determining the average performance.

User Daniel Schmid
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7.0k points
6 votes
The answer is C. You would use MEAN because it gives you the average although it doesn't always have to be a whole number. Therefore despite that one student performing badly won't affect the rest of the class.
Again hope this helps : )
User Hashibuto
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