Lesson 3:

Descriptive Measures
Reminder:

Kindly prepare your calculator

for this lesson.
Descriptive Measures

➢ The descriptive measures allow you to

characterize your data into several properties.
➢ The three commonly used measures under
descriptive study is the measures of the center,
measures of the location and the measures of
dispersion.
Part 1: Measures of the Center

➢ The three commonly used measures of center

are the following:
1. Mean
2. Median
3. Mode
Measures of Center: Mean

➢ The mean or average is most used measure of the center.

➢ To compute for the mean, simply add all the values in the
given data set and divide the summation by the count or
number of values.
➢ For example, the mean or average of a particular class in
an exam is determined by summing all the scores of the
students and then dividing the sum by the number of
students taking the exam.
➢ Consider the test score values:
15, 20, 21, 20, 36, 15, 25, 15
➢ Mean is 20.875
Measures of Center: Median

➢ The median is the score found at the middle of an

arranged data set.
➢ To find for the median, simply arrange the scores or data
set either in ascending or descending order and then
identify the middle score.
➢ You can easily identify the middle score in an array of
data with odd numbers of participants.
➢ For example, if there are 13 scores in the list, the 7th
score is the median.
➢ Scores of students in a twenty-item test:
➢ 2,3,5,9,10,10,12,14,18,19,20,20,20
Measures of Center: Median

➢ If the number of values in the data set is even, get the

average of the two middlemost scores.
➢ For example, if we have 8 students in the class with the
following scores in a forty-item test.
➢ Test scores: 15, 15, 15, 20, 21, 21, 25, 36
➢ To get the median, compute the average of the 4th and
5th score.
➢ Median is 20.5
 Measures of Center: Mode

➢ The mode is the most frequently occurring score in the

data set.
➢ To determine the mode, you might again order the
scores as shown below, and then count the frequency
of each value.
➢ Considering the example on the previous slide.
➢ Test scores: 15, 15, 15, 20, 21, 21, 25, 36
➢ Which of the following score/s appear the most?
➢ Take note that mode is not unique. A distribution may
also contain two (bimodal) or more modes
(multimodal).
 9

Let us Practice!!!
➢ Compute for the mean, median and mode
➢ Compute for the mean, median and mode

Income (X) Frequency (f) fX

12,000 2 24,000

20,000 3 60,000

24,000 4 96,000

25,000 8 200,000

32,250 9 290,250

36,000 5 180,000

40,000 2 80,000

60,000 2 120,000

Mean:
12000 2 + 20000 3 + ⋯ 60000(2)
𝑥ҧ =
35
ഥ = 𝟑𝟎, 𝟎𝟎𝟕. 𝟏𝟒
𝒙
➢ Compute for the mean, median and mode

Income Frequency fX Cumulative

(X) (f) frequency
12,000 2 24,000 2

20,000 3 60,000 5

24,000 4 96,000 9

25,000 8 200,000 17

32,250 9 290,250 26

36,000 5 180,000 31

40,000 2 80,000 33

60,000 2 120,000 35

➢ Median: Since there are 35 data values,

the middle value is the 18th score in the
arranged data set. Therefore, the median
is 32,250.
➢ Compute for the mean, median and mode

Income Frequency fX Cumulative

(X) (f) frequency
12,000 2 24,000 2

20,000 3 60,000 5

24,000 4 96,000 9

25,000 8 200,000 17

32,250 9 290,250 26

36,000 5 180,000 31

40,000 2 80,000 33

60,000 2 120,000 35

➢ The mode is the value containing the

highest frequency. Therefore, the mode is
32,250.
 14

Compute for the mean, median mode.

Raw Data

Tabular form