What term describes the most frequently occurring value in a data set?

• A. Mean
• B. Median
• C. Mode
• D. Range

Answer: (C)

The mode is the value that occurs most often in a data set. It focuses on frequency rather than the exact middle or the spread of the data. For example, in a set like 3, 7, 3, 2, 3, 9, 7, the number 3 shows up most frequently, so it is the mode. If two values appear with the same highest frequency, the data set has two modes (or is multimodal). If every value occurs only once, there isn’t a single mode defined. By contrast, the mean is the average of all numbers, the median is the middle value when the data are ordered, and the range is the difference between the largest and smallest values—descriptions of center or spread, not of frequency.