Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CAADC) Practice Exam

What is the term for the midpoint of a distribution?

1. Range

2. Mean

3. Median

4. Mode

The correct answer is: Median

The term for the midpoint of a distribution is the median. In statistics, the median is the value that separates the higher half from the lower half of a data set. When a data set is ordered from least to greatest, the median is the middle number if there is an odd number of observations. If there is an even number of observations, the median is the average of the two middle numbers. This distinction is particularly important because the median is less affected by outliers and skewed data compared to the mean, which calculates the average value by summing all observations and dividing by the number of observations. Thus, in the context of a distribution, the median serves as a reliable indicator of central tendency, especially for non-normally distributed data sets. The other terms, such as range (which measures the difference between the highest and lowest values), mean (the arithmetic average), and mode (the most frequently occurring value), represent different concepts in understanding data distribution but do not specifically refer to the midpoint.