ABSTRACT
If you received a mark of 58 in an examination would you know how well you had done relative to the other candidates? Were you the best in the class or the worst? Clearly this is a case where you need further information. With the mean and standard deviation you can begin to answer these questions. If the mean is 52 and the standard deviation is 5 then your score is one of the best. If, however, the mean is 59 and the standard deviation is 3 then you are a little below average but as the scores are clustered around 59 there are likely to be a lot of students with similar results.
