Box plot
SAT glossary · Math
Definition
A display of five numbers: minimum, Q1, median, Q3, maximum. It shows neither the mean nor the sample size, which is why "cannot be determined" is correct on box-plot items more often than elsewhere.
Box plot in plain English
A box plot (also called a box-and-whisker plot) is a simple picture that summarizes a whole set of data using just five numbers: the smallest value, the point where the bottom 25% of data ends (called Q1), the middle value (the median), the point where the top 25% begins (Q3), and the largest value. What a box plot does NOT show you is the average (mean) of the data, or how many data points there actually are — those numbers simply aren't part of the picture. That's exactly why, on a box-plot question, if you're asked something about the mean or the sample size, the honest answer is often 'cannot be determined' — the plot was never built to tell you that.
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