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General Educational Development (GED): Mean, Median, Mode, and Range

Guide will help adult education students with math, science, social studies, language arts and reading comprehension in order to prepare for their GED Exams.

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Mean, Median, Mode, and Range

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Mean, Median, Mode, and Range

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Calculating the Mean, Median, Mode, and Range

Mean

The mean is know as the average of a list of numbers

To calculate the mean you just add up all the numbers in your list and then divide by the number of numbers.

 

Example:

2, 14, 16, 18, 16, 23, 24, 38

First step we do is we add all the numbers together 

2 + 14 + 16 + 18 + 16 + 23 + 24 + 38 = 151

now we take our answer and divide it by 8 because we have eight numbers in the list

151 / 8 =18.875

Are mean would be 18.875

Median

 The median is the middle value in the list of numbers.

To find the median, your numbers have to be listed in numerical order from smallest to largest, so you may have to rewrite your list before you can find the median. 

Example:

2, 14, 16, 18, 16, 23, 24, 38

 

The first step in finding the median is to reorder are list from smallest to largest numbers.

2, 14, 16, 16, 18, 23, 24, 38

 

 **If there are an even amount of numbers the median is the average of the two numbers in the middle**

 

In this case we have an even amount of numbers therefore we average the two middle numbers which are 16 and 18. we add the two numbers together than divide by 2 to get 17.

17 would be our median

Mode

The mode is the value that occurs most often in the list of numbers or data.

If no number in the list is repeated, then there is no mode for the list. You can also have more than one mode.

 

Example:

2, 14, 16, 18, 16, 23, 24, 38

First step is to observe the list and count how many you have of each individual number and then determine which number occurs more often. In this case the 16 is the only number that repeats therefore it is considered are Mode.

Range

The range of a list a numbers is just the difference between the largest and smallest values.

 

To find the range you just simple take the largest number and subtract the smallest number to get your range.

Example:

2, 14, 16, 18, 16, 23, 24, 38

First step is to determine which number is the largest and which is the smallest. In this case the 38 is the largest number and the 2 is the smallest number.

Subtract smallest number from the largest number

38 - 2 = 36

Range = 36