If students at Lincoln High School receive Verbal Aptitude Test (VAT) scores with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 7.6, while students at Washington High School receive VAT scores with a mean of 120 and a standard deviation of 2.8, we know that
A) students at Washington High School are smarter than students at Lincoln High School
B) individual students at Lincoln High School had more similar VAT scores than did individual students at Washington High School
C) the test may be unfair because of the large difference between scores of Lincoln High School students and Washington High School students
D) there was less variability on the scores received by students at Washington High School

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values. A lower standard deviation means that the values tend to be closer to the mean of the set, while a higher standard deviation means that the values are spread out over a wider range. Since Washington High School has a lower standard deviation (2.8) compared to Lincoln High School (7.6), it indicates that there was less variability in the scores at Washington High School.

If Students at Lincoln High School Receive Verbal Aptitude Test