What is the difference between the highest and lowest scores?

What is the difference between the highest and lowest scores?

• A. Variability
• B. Range
• C. Deviation
• D. Z-score

Answer: (B)

The difference between the highest and lowest scores is the range, a measure of how spread out the data are at the broadest level. It’s calculated by subtracting the smallest value from the largest value, so it gives a quick sense of the overall spread from the bottom to the top of the data. For example, if scores range from 50 to 90, the range is 40. This makes it easy to grasp the span of the data, though it can be sensitive to outliers since a single extreme value can widen it. Variability is a general term for how spread out the data are and doesn’t specify a single numeric value. Deviation refers to how far an individual score is from a central value like the mean. A Z-score standardizes a value by subtracting the mean and dividing by the standard deviation, showing how many standard deviations away a value is from the mean, not the overall range of the data.

The difference between the highest and lowest scores is the range, a measure of how spread out the data are at the broadest level. It’s calculated by subtracting the smallest value from the largest value, so it gives a quick sense of the overall spread from the bottom to the top of the data. For example, if scores range from 50 to 90, the range is 40. This makes it easy to grasp the span of the data, though it can be sensitive to outliers since a single extreme value can widen it.

Variability is a general term for how spread out the data are and doesn’t specify a single numeric value. Deviation refers to how far an individual score is from a central value like the mean. A Z-score standardizes a value by subtracting the mean and dividing by the standard deviation, showing how many standard deviations away a value is from the mean, not the overall range of the data.