Question

Bailey earned the following scores on 6 math tests: 90, 96, 100, 82, 78, 100. Her teacher said she could choose to record either the median or the mean of her test scores. Which should she choose? Why?

Answer 1

Bailey should choose to record the median of her scores, because it is two points higher than the mean of her scores.

Explanation:

To find the median (middle) of the scores, we must put them in order from least to greatest first.

`78, 82, 90, 96, 100, 100`

Since there are an even number of scores, the median will be the average of the middle two values in the ordered list.

`(90 + 96)/2 = 186/2 = 93`

The mean (average) of the scores is found by dividing their sum by the number of scores in the list.

`(90 + 96 + 100 + 82 + 78 + 100)/6 = 546/6 = 91`

Since the median is higher than the mean, Bailey should choose to record the median.