Half the students are below average! This is outrageous!
this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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My mom says I'm above average
Below the median
Unless scores follow a standard (or any other symmetric) distribution
median is an average
It's absolutely not. Median is a value in the middle of a sorted set and average is, well, average. In the set of 1, 7, 10: 7 is median and 6 is average.
as @force pointed out, 'average' has many meanings (haha). of course a lot of the time, average is used as 'mean'. but...not always!
Idk man looking up a definition for "average" is like
- a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, in particular the mode, median, or (most commonly) the mean, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number.
and
- Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode. [from c. 1735]
and
1 a : a single value (such as a mean, mode, or median) that summarizes or represents the general significance of a set of unequal values
doesn't look like that dude's using the word "wrong" to me, a lotta people and mathematicians definitely recall using "average" meaning median
Such irony that this comment gets downvoted on a meme about failing education
Even with a simple, yet very clear example
What's ironic here is your comment, lol. "Average" can and is absolutely used to say mean or median or any other average that is representative based on the dataset in question. When you ask a statistician to calculate an average of a dataset they probably won't just go calculate the mean, they'll think about which value is most appropriate in context.
There are different definitions of average and one is median
Yes, and therefore the original comment was wrong and needed to be corrected.
No, it wasn't wrong because it didn't specify which average was meant. If it was "arithmetic average", it would be wrong.
It would still be right. The test results are reported on a normalized curve so all measures of central tendency are all equal.
If you don't specify then the statement needs to hold for all averages to be correct.
"I have a ball"
"So you have a red ball?"
"No, it's green"
"If you don't specify then the statement needs to hold for all balls to be correct."
And by the way: for the given plot, it is correct for all averages
25% of people makes up a quarter of the population!
I cant tell if this is a joke or if this guy is in the bottom quartile.
It's a satirical account, that's not a real politician.
There are plenty of them out there that are this dumb though.
Its a little sad that it’s this hard to tell anymore. Thanks btw
I cant tell if you are joking or if you are in the bottom quartile.
Goodhart's Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
My state'a standardized test says kids are "at risk" if they aren't in the top 40% of the test. The top 50% could all be traditional "a-b" students. But because they weren't in the top 80% of a-b students they are at risk for failing academically.... It's so asinine and disheartening. The last half of the year is devoted to this idiotic test. Kids could be learning stuff that will enrich themselves... Instead they are learnig how to take a test better.
But then again, 25 percent of American students are also in the top quartile on standardized tests, so it evens out.
Ironically, him being a fucking idiot actually proves his point.
Wait, this isn't satire?
Edit: I commented too soon. It's satire.
Yeah, and me being a fucking idiot proves it more.
Lmaooooo I love this save
I commend you for at least acknowledging it.
60% of the time, it works every time
An education system that always fails a set number of people, regarless of how well people do, is a bad system, however.
There will always be 25% in the bottom quartile, regardless of how well any students perform.
I think their point is that you could have people in the bottom quartile who learned what they are expected to, are capable, but are failed anyway because of how they compare to others.
(Assuming curved tests really work like that, never bothered reading the pretty long grading policies)
I’ve been graded on a curve, and I’ve done it myself a couple of times. IMO, it’s usually a sign of a bad class (too much material being crammed in) or a bad teacher (didn’t get the concepts across to the majority of the students).
That said, it’s usually done when it’s needed to prevent a significant portion of the class from failing. I remember a chem exam I took where a 16/100 was a C.
The basic idea is that grades are normally distributed (ie a bell curve) which allows you to find the average grade range and shift the letter grade (eg a C or C+). There’s some professors who take the idea too far and rather than working off of an actual normal distribution try to fit the procedure to a simply skewed distribution or use it to pull down an 85/100 to a C, but in my experience that’s the exception to the rule, especially in math/science courses.
Also, iirc this is a parody account.
I'm surprised it's only 25%. These days, I'd figure at least 40% would be in the lowest quartile. Has anyone checked the math on this?
Check the math? What do I look like, a numbertician??
Damn, I was really hoping to find a mathmagician!
I notice there is a 25% in the top as well... Coincidence or conspiracy...
Everyone should be in the top! Everyone should have unlimited resources from disabled addicts to military bioweapons developers - it should be a flat line, a plateau!
Bioweapon developers should be shot in the street. Disabled addicts should be provided the proper help they need; and the education should be changed so there are less disabled addicts and bioweapon developers alike.
News at 11: "Half of people are below average!"
Ashktually half people below the median.
Ackchyually, they never said which average they meant, you just assumed mean.
Same thing in a normal distribution, no?
Tide goes in, tide goes out. Can't explain that.
The gravitational pull of the moon.
But you're right, I cannot explain why gravity even exists.