Rolinda’s first five Spanish test scores are 85, 85, 60, 62, and 59.
a. Find the mean, the median, and the mode of Rolinda’s Spanish test scores. Round your answers to the nearest tenth, if necessary.
b. Which of these measures best supports Rolinda’s claim that she is doing well in her Spanish class?
c. Why is Rolinda’s claim misleading?
a. To find the mean, add up all the scores and divide by the total number of scores:
(85 + 85 + 60 + 62 + 59) / 5 = 351 / 5 = 70.2
Mean = 70.2
To find the median, list the scores in numerical order and find the middle score:
59, 60, 62, 85, 85
Median = 62
To find the mode, identify the score(s) that appears most often:
85, 85 (appears 2 times)
Mode = 85
b. The mode best supports Rolinda's claim that she is doing well in her Spanish class, as it shows her most frequent test score is 85.
c. Rolinda's claim is misleading because the mean and median suggest that her overall performance is lower than her mode score of 85. The mean (70.2) and median (62) are probably a more accurate representation of her overall performance, which is not as high as her claim suggests.