FTCE General Knowledge Math Practice Test

What does the median represent in a data set?

1. The average value

2. The middle number or average of two middle numbers

3. The most common value

4. The highest value minus the lowest value

The correct answer is: The middle number or average of two middle numbers

The median is the value that separates a data set into two equal halves, which means that half of the numbers are below it and half are above it. When a data set is organized in ascending order, the median can be found by identifying the middle number. If the data set has an odd number of observations, the median is simply the middle number. If there is an even number of observations, the median is calculated by taking the average of the two middle numbers. This characteristic makes the median a valuable measure of central tendency, especially in skewed distributions, as it is less affected by extreme values than the mean.