Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
A situation written for this example
Which number best describes a typical hourly wage at the café?A. $30, the meanA small café pays its five people these hourly wages: $16, $17, $17, $19, and $81 (the owner’s own pay).Practice numbers, made up for this drill.
B. $17, the median
C. $81, the highest wage
D. $150, the total
- First, find the three “typical” numbers the lesson names.
- The mean adds everything and divides by how many: 16 + 17 + 17 + 19 + 81 = 150, and 150 ÷ 5 = $30.
- The median is the middle value once the numbers are in order. They are already in order, and the middle of five is the third: $17.
- The mode is the value that appears most often: $17, which appears twice. Here it agrees with the median.
- Both ways are worth knowing. The test gives you an on-screen calculator, and working by hand lets you check that the calculator’s answer makes sense. On the calculator, the mean: type ( 16 + 17 + 17 + 19 + 81 ) ÷ 5 and press enter. The screen shows 30. The parentheses make the calculator add all five wages first and then divide; without them, it would divide only the 81 by 5. The median and the mode need no calculator: you put the numbers in order and look.
- Now look at the list. One value, $81, is far from the others. The mean takes that $81 and shares it out across all five, so the mean lands at $30, above four of the five wages. It describes no one who works there.
- Skills Quiz 10’s habit: when one value is far from the others, prefer the median. $17 is what a typical person at the café is paid. That is B.
- C is the one far value. D is the total, which is not a typical value at all.
Answer: B
Example 2
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2026: household incomes for 2025
A news report says, “The typical household in the Northeast earned about $95,000 in 2025.” Which measure did the report use, and why is it a good choice?A. The mean, because it adds in every household’s incomeIn 2025, the median household income in the Northeast was $95,110. The mean household income there was $140,500.
B. The median, because a few very high incomes pull the mean above what is typical
C. The mode, because it is the most common income
D. The mean, because it is the larger number
- First, match the report’s number to the source. $95,000 is about $95,110, the median. So the report used the median.
- Now the why. The mean, $140,500, is far above the median. How can that be?
- How far above? On the calculator: type 140500 ÷ 95110 and press enter. The screen shows 1.4772...: the mean is about one and a half times the median. By hand: one and a half times $95,000 is $95,000 + $47,500 = $142,500, close to $140,500.
- The median is the middle household: about half of households earned less than $95,110, and about half earned more.
- The mean adds every income in, and a smaller number of very high incomes, in the millions of dollars, drag the total up. Shared out across all the households, they lift the mean far above the middle household.
- So the median describes a typical household better. That is B.
- A and D name the mean, which is not the report’s number. C names the mode; the source does not give a mode, and $95,000 is the median.
Answer: B
Where this is taught: Skills Quiz 10, Numbers in social studies: First, the idea · Skills Quiz 10: the worked example · Math Drill 8.02, The median · Skills Diagnostic, Part 10
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 1, Lesson 6: Interpret Data and Statistics · Map of the Terrain, topic 10: Numbers: percents, rates, averages
The drill
Ten questions
How many:
Read what is in the box first. Then tap your answer; a few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Press Check my answers at the bottom.Read what is in the box first. Circle your answer; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.