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What is the difference between standard deviation and range as measures of data spread?

Study flashcard from the deck Digital SAT Math: Algebra, Advanced Math & Geometry.

Answer

Range is simply $\text{Maximum} - \text{Minimum}$, sensitive only to extreme values. Standard deviation measures how spread out individual data points are relative to the mean.

Explanation

On the SAT, you rarely need to compute numerical standard deviation; you only need to recognize that data clustered closer to the mean has a smaller standard deviation than widely dispersed data.

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