Question

1. The researcher changes the exam, slightly, every few years. Therefore, the researcher prefers to measure exam performance in an ordered fashion. He notes the highest score as 1st, the second highest score as 2nd, and so on for all 50 students.

   Is exam performance in this study a continuous or discrete measurement?
   Is exam performance a nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio measurement? Why?

Answer 1

Solution:

A discrete variable can take countable values. They cannot be in decimals or fractions.

A continuous variable can take any values. They can be in decimals or fractions or a whole number.

Given the above definitions, the exam performance in this study is a discrete measurement.

The difference between various levels of measurements are:

1. The values of data measured on this scale can be a number or a name, but they cannot be rank ordered – Nominal Scale

2. The values of data measured on this scale can be rank ordered and have meaningful differences between scale points. For this scale, there is also an absolute zero point – Ratio Scale

3. The values of data measured on this scale can be rank ordered and have meaningful differences between scale points. Interval Scale

4. The values of data measured on this scale can be a number or a name, but they can be rank ordered – Ordinal Scale

Given the above definitions, the exam performance in this study is an ordinal measurement.