Question

Your statistics instructor tells you on the first day of class that there will be five tests during the term. From the scores on these tests for each student he will compute a measures of central tendency that will serve as the student’s final course grade. Before taking the first test you must choose whether you want your final grade to be the mean or the median of the five test scores. Which would you choose? Why? Justify your answer.

Answer 1

Median

Explanation:

I would want my final grade to be equal to the median of my test scores. Choosing my final grade to be the median is less punishing if I do very poorly on a single test. In fact, if the subject matter was extremely difficult, I could simply skip that test and get a 0. While it is risky, I can do this with up to 2 tests. That wouldn't be possible if my final grade was an average.