A class of 40 students is attempting to guess the number of jellybeans in a glass jar. They write all of their numbers on a piece of paper one at a time. The last student to come up to write their number down happens to be the daughter of a statistician and remembers a "trick" to this game. Taking what value of the 39 guesses will yield a value closest to the actual value?
A) The minimum
B) The mode
C) The median
D) The standard deviation

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The median is the middle value when the numbers are arranged in ascending order. It is not affected by outliers or extreme values as much as the mean. Therefore, taking the median of the 39 guesses is the best choice for getting a value closest to the actual value.

A Class of 40 Students Is Attempting to Guess the Number