3.3 – Mode

The third, and final, measure of center is the mode. The mode is simply the most frequently occurring score in a distribution. To calculate the mode, count the frequency for each score, then the score with the highest frequency is the mode.

To do this, either put your scores in order so that you can more easily count the frequencies or create a frequency table and look for the highest frequency. Take, for example, the following set of scores:

One option is to put them in order and look for the score that occurs the most:

It’s pretty easy to see with this small group of scores that 5 is the most frequently occurring score in this group of individuals.

Alternatively, you can create a frequency table and look for the score with the highest frequency:

Because the score of 5 has the highest frequency (f = 4) of any of the scores, the mode is 5. In other words, the score of 5 is the most frequently occurring score in the distribution.

Like the median, the mode is insensitive to outliers.