Question

Determine whether the mean, median, or mode would be the best choice to describe the center of the following set of data. An elementary school has 92 first graders. They take a vocabulary test that estimates the number of vocabulary words they know. Most of the first-graders had a good start on language acquisition and knew between about 15,000 and 20,000 words. However, there were a few first-graders who were a little behind in language acquisition and only knew about 7,000 words. Would it be best to use the mean, median, or mode to describe the number of vocabulary words that are understood by the first-graders?

Answer 1

Median

Explanation:

The best measure of center in this case would be the median, as the presence of a few outliers (first-graders who were behind in language acquisition) would greatly affect the mean, while the median would provide a better representation of the typical vocabulary knowledge of first-graders in the group.