Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Practice Test

Which number is the median of the following set: 3, 1, 4, 2, 5?

1. 1

2. 2

3. 3

4. 4

The correct answer is: 3

To determine the median of a set, you first need to arrange the numbers in numerical order. For the given set of numbers: 3, 1, 4, 2, 5, when arranged in ascending order, the sequence becomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The median is defined as the middle value in a list of numbers. Since there are five numbers in this dataset (an odd number), the median will be the number located at the center of the sorted list. In this case, the third number in the ordered sequence is 3. Therefore, 3 is the median of the set. This understanding highlights the importance of both ordering the numbers and identifying the central point in the dataset when calculating the median. In scenarios where there is an even number of values, the median is typically found by averaging the two central numbers, but that does not apply here given the odd count of values.