

Statisticians calculating the national SAT average score would use a sample standard deviation because they are presented with the data from a sample only, not from the entire population.

For example, when summarizing the exam scores of a class of students, a teacher will use the population standard deviation. Researchers and analysists operate on the standard deviation of a sample and population in different situations.

To put it differently, the standard deviation shows whether your data is close to the mean or fluctuates a lot. The standard deviation is a measure that indicates how much the values of the set of data deviate (spread out) from the mean.
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How to add standard deviation bars in Excel.How to calculate standard error of mean in Excel.Formula examples to calculate standard deviation in Excel.Functions to get population standard deviation.Functions to calculate sample standard deviation.How to find standard deviation in Excel.The aim of this tutorial is shed some light on what the standard deviation actually is and how to calculate it in Excel. But while the former is well understood by most, the latter is comprehended by few. In descriptive statistics, the arithmetic mean (also called the average) and standard deviation and are two closely related concepts. The tutorial explains the essence of the standard deviation and standard error of the mean as well as which formula is best to be used for calculating standard deviation in Excel.
