AP Stats Descriptive Statistics

Question 1

What is the difference between the mean and the median?

Accepted Answer

The mean is the arithmetic average; the median is the middle value when data is ordered

Answer

The mean sums all values and divides by count, while the median identifies the middle value in an ordered dataset.

Question 2

What does standard deviation measure?

Accepted Answer

The average amount of variability or spread in a dataset

Answer

Standard deviation quantifies how spread out data values are from the mean, indicating the typical distance from the average.

Question 3

When is the median preferred over the mean?

Accepted Answer

When the data contains outliers or is heavily skewed

Answer

The median is resistant to extreme values and better represents the center of skewed distributions.

Question 4

What is a frequency distribution?

Accepted Answer

A table or graph showing how often each value or range of values occurs

Answer

A frequency distribution organizes data by showing the count or proportion of observations for each value or interval.

Question 5

What does a box plot display?

Accepted Answer

The minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile, and maximum of a dataset

Answer

Box plots provide a visual summary of the five-number summary, showing the distribution, spread, and potential outliers.

AP Practice Test