The science which deals with the methods of collecting, classifying,…

Every quantitative discipline is defined by the core method it applies to numbers: some disciplines are concerned with the full life cycle of numerical data — collecting it, classifying it, presenting it, comparing it, and interpreting it to reach conclusions — while others study abstract number relationships, the properties of space and shape, or the likelihood of uncertain events.

The stem describes exactly the first kind: a science built around collecting, classifying, presenting, comparing, and interpreting numerical data. This five-step data-handling description is the standard textbook definition of statistics, so the subject being described is statistics.

• Mathematics is the broader abstract science of numbers, quantities, structures, and space (arithmetic, algebra, calculus, etc.); it is not specifically defined around the process of collecting and interpreting numerical data.

• Geometry deals with the properties, measurement, and relationships of points, lines, angles, and shapes in space, and has no connection to collecting or interpreting data.

• Probability quantifies the likelihood of an uncertain or random event; it is only one analytical tool occasionally used within statistics, not the discipline defined by the full collect-classify-present-compare-interpret cycle.

Hence, the science described in the stem is statistics.