Data Sufficiency

What is the median of the observations 4,5,7,x,2 ?

(1). The average of the given observations is 4
(2). The mode of the given observations is 3

Answer is D

Hi All,

The above one is from prep company. So far in GMAT, i haven't encountered any question of statistics that mentions "mode." I am not sure whether this type "mode" is asked or not. However, if it is, then i don't know how to solve for mode. Please help on this one.
The (1) is simple and easy to get the value of x. (2) is out of my reach.

Thanks & Regards
Vinni

vinni.k wrote:What is the median of the observations 4,5,7,x,2 ?

(1). The average of the given observations is 4
(2). The mode of the given observations is 3

Answer is D

Hi All,

The above one is from prep company. So far in GMAT, i haven't encountered any question of statistics that mentions "mode." I am not sure whether this type "mode" is asked or not. However, if it is, then i don't know how to solve for mode. Please help on this one.
The (1) is simple and easy to get the value of x. (2) is out of my reach.

Thanks & Regards
Vinni

Will try my best:

Statement 1 is simple and is sufficient to answer

Statement 2: Mode means number or numbers that appear most frequently. Since the question says 3 and from the given set 3 can appear at max once (when x=3), mode cannot be 3. In fact when x is not equal to 4,5,7,2 we have no mode. so statement 2 is contradictory according to me and So I will stick with A.

mathewmithun wrote:
Will try my best:

Statement 1 is simple and is sufficient to answer

Statement 2: Mode means number or numbers that appear most frequently. Since the question says 3 and from the given set 3 can appear at max once (when x=3), mode cannot be 3. In fact when x is not equal to 4,5,7,2 we have no mode. so statement 2 is contradictory according to me and So I will stick with A.

Nope, answer is D. Mode is confusing me.
Can anyone please explain this mode in detail ? and Does GMAT ask questions based on mode ?

vinni

Brent@GMATPrepNow wrote:I have a feeling that statement 2 is supposed to read:

(2) The mode of the given observations is 2

In this case, the answer to the question would be D

Cheers,
Brent

Brent, thanks for your reply.

The source is "IMS max-prep"

I have checked the statement (2) again, and it is correct. The mode of the given observations is 3.

and the explanation given for statement (2) is - We know that the mode is 3 and hence to make the mode of the observations 3, x has to be equal to 3. Hence, this is also enough.

I am not sure what does this mean

Thanks
Vinni