SAT · Problem Solving & Data Analysis · Scatterplots, tables, and probability
Question sat-q-00158
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The question
The five values in a data set are 24, 67, 40, 52, 52. What is the mean?
- 235
- 47
- 40
- 58.8
Show answer & worked solution
Answer: 47
Worked solution. Sum the values: 235. Divide by the number of values (5): 235 / 5 = 47.
Why each wrong choice is wrong. A distractor returns the median (middle value), which equals the mean only by coincidence. Another divides by the wrong count.
Test-day tactic. Mean is sum over count. Don't confuse it with median (middle value) or mode (most frequent value).
About this question type
Items ask you to read a value off a scatterplot, to identify the line of best fit, to compute a probability or conditional probability from a two-way table, or to interpret a relative-frequency statement.
You will see a question shaped like this one on roughly every other official SAT form, typically at a moderate position in the section — solidly within the range that separates a 600-band student from a 700-band student. Treat any miss in this subtopic as a signal to drill the subtopic page before you do another full practice test.