Which statistical term describes the average score in a data set?

The average score in a data set is referred to as the mean. The mean is calculated by summing all the values in the data set and then dividing that sum by the total number of values. This measure provides an overall representation of the data, balancing all values irrespective of their individual magnitudes. The mean is particularly useful in various statistical analyses and is often used as a measure of central tendency to summarize information about the dataset.

By contrast, the median is the middle value when the data is ordered, while the mode indicates the most frequently occurring value in a dataset. Standard deviation, on the other hand, measures the amount of variation or dispersion within a set of values. Each of these terms has its specific context and application in statistics, but when discussing the average of a data set, the mean is the correct terminology to use.