Consider the small dataset of 12 student exam scores;

87, 92, 75, 81, 88, 79, 84, 90, 83, 77, 86, 91

calculate the measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion

Mean: To calculate the mean, we add up all the scores and divide by the total number of scores.

Sum of scores = 87 + 92 + 75 + 81 + 88 + 79 + 84 + 90 + 83 + 77 + 86 + 91 = 1,013

Mean = 1,013 / 12 = 84.42

Median: To find the median, we first need to arrange the scores in ascending order:

75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 92

Since there is an even number of scores, the median is the average of the two middle values, 84 and 86.

Median = (84 + 86) / 2 = 85

Mode: The mode is the score that appears most frequently in the dataset. In this case, there is no single
mode, as no score appears more than once.

Range: The range is the difference between the highest and lowest scores.

Range = 92 - 75 = 17

Standard Deviation: The standard deviation measures the average deviation of the scores from the
mean.

Variance = Σ(x - mean)^2 / (n - 1)

= (87 - 84.42)^2 + (92 - 84.42)^2 + ... + (91 - 84.42)^2 / (12 - 1)

Standard Deviation = √3.49 = 5.91

Variance: The variance is the square of the standard deviation.

Variance = 3.49

Based on this analysis, we can make the following interpretations:

1. The mean score of 84.42 suggests that the overall performance of the students is above average.

2. The median score of 85 indicates that half the students scored below 85 and half scored above 85,
which is close to the mean.

3. The absence of a clear mode suggests that the scores are fairly evenly distributed.
4. The range of 17 points indicates a relatively wide spread in the scores, with a difference of 17 points
between the highest and lowest scores.

5. The standard deviation of 5.91 shows that the scores are, on average, about 5.91 points away from
the mean, indicating a moderate amount of variation in the dataset.

6. The variance of 3.49 provides a measure of the average squared deviation from the mean, which is
useful for further statistical analysis.

Overall, this dataset suggests a group of students with a generally good performance, with some
variation in individual scores.