Statistics Assignments Using Excel

Assignment #3: Measures of Central Tendency

Final exam scores from two different biology classes:

Class A Class B

91 72

89 80

87 72

75 70

86 77

77 64

85 100

92 69

84 83

77 93

79 98

66 73

90 65

84 99

81 84

72 82

92 78

75 68

81 81

79 74

1) Compute the mean, median, and mode exam score for each class using Excel spreadsheet

functions (AVERAGE, MEDIAN, MODE).

2) Double-check your answers using some other technique (e.g., creating your own formula

for the mean, using scratch paper to double check the median and mode).

3) Insert a textbox into your spreadsheet, responding to the following questions:

Which class did better? How do you know?

Are the data skewed? How so? How do you know?

Did you double-check your answers and notice anything peculiar? Explain.

4) Do a final save and submit your work.

Author contact and copyright information:

Michael J. Tagler, Ph.D., Department of Psychological Science, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47304, [emailprotected]

Copyright 2010 by Michael J. Tagler. All rights reserved. You may reproduce multiple copies of this material for your own personal

use, including use in your classes and/or sharing with individual colleagues as long as the author's name and institution and the

Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology heading or other identifying information appear on the copied document. No other

permission is implied or granted to print, copy, reproduce, or distribute additional copies of this material. Anyone who wishes to

produce copies for purposes other than those specified above must obtain the permission of the author.

Microsoft Excel is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.

The following textbook contains detailed instructions for using spreadsheets in an introductory statistics class:

Tagler, M. J. (2009). Understanding basic statistics with spreadsheets. New York, NY: Pearson Custom.