1. A college’s health center sees about 50 students per week. Most visits fall into one of these categories, in order of frequency: (1) infectious diseases, such as strep throat, mononucleosis, and influenza; (2) muscle, tendon, or ligament sprains and strains; or (3) complications of existing chronic disorders such as asthma or diabetes. It is the policy of Health Center staff to follow up with each patient after an office visit until the patient reports that his or her health has returned to normal. What measure of central tendency best summaries patient recovery time for all patients seen during a typical week? Why?
2. Your instructor gives a 60-item pre-test on the first day of your statistics class. Because there has not yet been any statistics instruction, most students score quite low on the test. However, a small number of students have had statistics instruction as part of another course. Those students do very well on the test. What measure of central tendency best summarizes the whole class’s statistics knowledge at the start of the course? Why?