National Counselor Exam (NCE)

Which of the following are measures of central tendency?

1. Mean and variance

2. Median and mode

3. Standard deviation and mode

4. Range and median

The correct answer is: Median and mode

The measures of central tendency are statistical methods used to summarize a set of data by identifying the central point within that dataset. The median and mode are both classic examples of these measures. The median represents the midpoint of a dataset, effectively dividing it into two equal halves. It is particularly useful in datasets with outliers, as it is not affected by extremely high or low values. The mode, on the other hand, refers to the value that appears most frequently in the dataset. It can be used with both numerical and categorical data, making it an important measure in various contexts. In contrast, while mean is also a measure of central tendency, variance, standard deviation, and range are measures of data dispersion rather than central tendency. Variance and standard deviation quantify the spread of the data points around the mean, while range simply measures the difference between the highest and lowest values in the dataset. Thus, among the options given, median and mode are the correct representatives of measures of central tendency.