Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators: Mathematics (5733)Statistics and ProbabilityMedium
A company is tracking the number of customer complaints received per day over a two-week period: 5, 8, 3, 6, 7, 5, 9, 4, 7, 6, 5, 8, 7, 6. What is the mode of the number of complaints?
- A7
- BBoth 5, 6, and 7
- C6
- D5
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Both 5, 6, and 7
To find the mode, identify the value(s) that appear most frequently in the dataset. Let's count the occurrences: 3 (1 time), 4 (1 time), 5 (3 times), 6 (3 times), 7 (3 times), 8 (2 times), 9 (1 time). Since 5, 6, and 7 all appear 3 times, and this is the highest frequency, all three are modes.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. 7 is a mode, but not the only one.
- C. 6 is a mode, but not the only one.
- D. 5 is a mode, but not the only one.
Mode
The value(s) that appear most frequently in a dataset.
- A dataset can have one mode (unimodal), multiple modes (multimodal), or no mode.
- Useful for categorical data.
- Not affected by outliers.
Memory trick: Central tendency: mean is sum, median is middle, mode is most.