Original practice · fully worked
Original variant: discrete mode–quantile gap
A service score K takes values 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 with respective probabilities 1/16, 3/16, 6/16, 4/16, and 2/16. Calculate the absolute difference between the mode of K and its 75th percentile.
- A
0 score units - B
1 score unit - C
2 score units - D
3 score units - E
5 score units
Answer and calculation
The largest probability occurs at K=2. The CDF first reaches 0.75 at K=3, so the absolute difference is one and choice B.
Setup
Setup
Locate the modal score by comparing the five probability masses.
kmaxPr(K=k)=Pr(K=2)=166 mode(K)=2 Model
Model
For a discrete variable, the 75th percentile is the smallest score whose cumulative probability is at least 0.75.
FK(2)=161+3+6=1610=0.625 FK(3)=161+3+6+4=1614=0.875 Compute
Compute
The cumulative distribution crosses 0.75 at score three.
q0.75=3 ∣q0.75−mode(K)∣=∣3−2∣=1 Answer
Answer
The mode and 75th percentile differ by one score unit.
1(B)