Page 555 - Basic College Mathematics with Early Integers

532 C HAPTE R 7 I STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY

PRACTICE 2 Example 2 Calculating Grade Point Average (GPA)
Find the grade point average if
The following grades were earned by a student during one semester. Find the
the following grades were
student’s grade point average.
earned in one semester.
Course Grade Credit Hours
Grade Credit Hours
College mathematics A 3
A 2
Biology B 3
B 4
English A 3
C 5
PE C 1
D 2
Social studies D 2
A 2
Solution: To calculate the grade point average, we need to know the point
values for the different possible grades.The point values of grades commonly used
in colleges and universities are given below:
A: 4, B: 3, C: 2, D: 1, F: 0
Now, to find the grade point average, we multiply the number of credit hours for
each course by the point value of each grade. The grade point average is the sum
of these products divided by the sum of the credit hours.

Point Value Credit Point Value
Course Grade of Grade Hours Credit Hours
College mathematics A 4 3 12
Biology B 3 3 9
English A 4 3 12
PE C 2 1 2
Social studies D 1 2 2
Totals: 12 37

37
grade point average = L 3.08 rounded to two decimal places
12
The student earned a grade point average of 3.08.
Work Practice 2

Objective Finding the Median

You may have noticed that a very low number or a very high number can affect the
mean of a list of numbers.Because of this,you may sometimes want to use another mea-
sure of central tendency. A second measure of central tendency is called the median.
The median of a list of numbers is not affected by a low or high number in the list.

The median of a set of numbers in numerical order is the middle number. If the
number of items is odd, the median is the middle number. If the number of
items is even, the median is the mean of the two middle numbers.

PRACTICE 3 Example 3 Find the median of the following list of numbers:
Find the median of the list of
25, 54, 56, 57, 60, 71, 98 Copyright 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
numbers: 5, 11, 14, 23, 24, 35, 38,
41, 43 Solution: Because this list is in numerical order, the median is the middle
number, 57.
Answers
2. 2.67 3. 24 Work Practice 3