Central Tendency in Statistics: Mean, Median, Mode | CFA® Level 1 Test Prep

Mean, Median, and Mode in Statistics

Prev Question Next Question

Question

Which of the following is/are true?

I. The mean of a sample represents its average value.

II. The median can only be calculated if the sample contains an odd number of values.

III. The mode is not affected by extreme outliers in the data.

IV. For samples with an even number of data points, the mode is preferable to the median as a measure of central tendency.

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H.

H

Note that the mode is not affected by outliers unless an extreme value occurs frequently. In such a case, it is likely that the observed data contain large errors and hence, it must be reexamined. The median of a set with odd number of observations equals the "middle" observation. If the number of observations is even, the median is the mean of the two middle observations. Thus, II is false.

Finally, there is no reason for a rule like (IV) to hold.

Prev Question Next Question