In a left-skewed distribution, which order is correct?

• A. Mean > Median > Mode
• B. Mode > Median > Mean
• C. Median > Mode > Mean
• D. Mode > Mean > Median

Answer: (B)

In a left-skewed (negatively skewed) distribution, the tail stretches to the left. This tail pulls the mean downward more than the median, while the mode remains at the highest, most frequent point. So the largest measure is the mode, followed by the median, and the smallest is the mean. The correct ordering from largest to smallest is Mode > Median > Mean.

For intuition, imagine most data clustered around higher values with a few very small values dragging the average down: the most common value sits high, the middle value sits a bit lower, and the average sits lowest because of those small outliers. The other orders would imply a different skew direction or a different relationship among the measures that doesn’t fit left-skewed data.