Quantitative Literacy Practice Exam 2025 – Comprehensive Preparation Guide

To understand overall rainfall trends over several years, the mean is the most suitable statistical measure. The mean provides an average value that summarizes the total rainfall across the years and gives insights into general patterns and variations in the data. By calculating the mean rainfall, one can observe if there has been an increase or decrease in rainfall over time, making it a powerful tool for analyzing trends.

The other options serve different purposes; for instance, standard deviation measures the amount of variation or dispersion from the mean, but does not directly indicate trends. The median, while useful for understanding the central tendency without the influence of outliers, does not reflect the overall total and might be misleading in a dataset with significant fluctuations. The mode identifies the most frequently occurring value but might not provide a comprehensive view of the overall rainfall pattern over several years. Therefore, using the mean allows for a clearer analysis of trends in rainfall data.