Finding the Median and the Mean

Which statements are true about the median? Check all that apply.

• Put the values in numerical order before trying to find the median.

• Median is a number that is much lower or much higher than the rest of the numbers.

• The median is always greatly impacted by outliers.

• The median is the number in the middle of an ordered set of values.

• The median must be calculated by finding the mean of the two middle points when there is an even number of data points.

Find the median for this set of data.

12, 8, 6, 4, 10, 1

(a)  

Some eighth graders took the PSAT test. Score totals of ten of the students are below. Calculate the mean and the median, and determine which provides a better view of the score data.

Scores:

60, 62, 67, 69, 70, 70, 71, 75, 76, 120

• mean

• median

• both the mean and median

• neither the mean or the median

Which sets contain one or more outliers? Check all that apply.

• 188, 298, 239, 10, 964, 254, 191

• 5, 3, 8, 6, 7, 6, 4, 2, 0

• 14, 19, 21, 15, 25, 13, 18

• 56, 3, 5, 77, 67, 69, 74, 66

• 93, 7, 32, 31, 34, 39, 34, 35, 33

Xavier earned the following test scores in math:

95, 90, 100, 85, 80

Ms. Bradley accidentally entered his next test score as 0. Which of these statements are true? Check all that apply.

• Before the error, the mean and the median were both 90.

• Before the error, the mean was 90 and the median was 100.

• The error added an outlier to the data set.

• After the error, the median remained the same.

• The mean was impacted by the error more than the median.