Finding the Mode
(KS2, Year 5)
We can find the mode of a set of numbers. Imagine a teacher wanted to find the class's average test score in mathematics.

mode example 1

How to Find the Mode

The mode is found by counting how often each number appears in a set and selecting the one that appears most often.

Question

What is the mode of the test scores below? mode test scores example

Step-by-Step:

1

List the numbers in numerical order (going from the smallest to the largest number).
6 7 7 9 10

2

Count how often each number appears.
  • 6 appears 1 time.
  • 7 appears 2 times.
  • 9 appears 1 time.
  • 10 appears 1 time.

3

Find the number that appears most often.

mode example 1 step 3

Answer:

The mode of the test scores is 7.

mode 7

How Find the Mode When There Is More Than One

Sometimes there is more than one mode in a set of numbers.

Question

What is the mode of the test scores below? mode test scores example 2

Step-by-Step:

1

List the numbers in numerical order (going from the smallest to the largest number).
6 7 7 9 10 10

2

Count how often each number appears.
  • 6 appears 1 time.
  • 7 appears 2 times.
  • 9 appears 1 time.
  • 10 appears 2 times.

3

Find the number that appears most often.

mode example 2 step 3

Answer:

The modes of the test scores are 7 and 10.

mode 7 10

Lesson Slides

The slider below gives another example of finding the mode.

Top Tip

The Mode Is The Most

Remember, the mode is the number that appears most!

Beware

There Isn't Always a Mode

Unlike the mean and median, there isn't always a mode.

If all numbers appear equally as often, there is no mode.

mode none

Note

Unimodal, Bimodal, Multimodal

  • A set of data with one mode is unimodal:

    unimodal In the set above, 1 occurs most often, more than any other number. There is only one mode.
  • A set of data with two modes is bimodal:

    bimodal In the set above, 1 and 2 both occur the same number of times, which is more than any other number. There are two modes.
  • A set of data with more than one modes is multimodal:

    multimodal In the set above, 1, 2 and 3 all occur the same number of times, which is more than any other number.

How to Find the Mode from a Frequency Table

Sometimes data is presented in frequency tables. A frequency table representing the test scores is shown below:

mode find from frequency table It is possible to find that the mode of the test scores is 7.

finding the mode from a frequency table
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This page was written by Stephen Clarke.