Ranking students for the individual with the highest grade points average (GPA) to the lowest is an example of (1 Point) Interval scale Nominal scale Ordinal scale Ratio scale
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
Correct Answer: Ordinal scale
Explanation:
When ranking students from the one with the highest grade point average (GPA) to the lowest, you are organizing them based on a position or order according to performance. This is a classic example of an ordinal scale.
An ordinal scale arranges data in a specific order, but the intervals between the values are not necessarily equal or known. In the case of student rankings, we can tell who has a higher or lower GPA than another, but we do not assume the exact difference between their GPAs unless additional numerical data is provided. The main purpose here is the order or sequence of the students, not the exact GPA values.
To clarify the other options:
- A nominal scale is used for labeling or naming categories without any quantitative value or order. For example, assigning students to different clubs or labeling gender. There is no ranking involved in nominal data.
- An interval scale provides information about the order and exact differences between values, but it does not have a true zero point. A common example is temperature measured in Celsius or Fahrenheit. GPA could be measured on an interval scale if we were focusing on the actual numerical scores, but simple rankings do not reflect the actual GPA differences, so interval scale is not appropriate for this specific ranking task.
- A ratio scale includes all the features of an interval scale but also has a true zero point, which means comparisons like “twice as much” are meaningful. Examples include height, weight, and age. Although GPA can be considered ratio in terms of its value, using it purely for ranking ignores the actual ratios between scores.
Thus, when GPA is used only for ranking students from highest to lowest, it fits under the ordinal scale because the focus is on the order, not the exact differences or values.
