Students in a basic statistics class are allowed to take as much time as needed on their final exam.The exact amount of time it takes each student to finish the final exam is an example of a _________.

A) discrete random variable
B) continuous random variable

Since the amount of time it takes each student to finish the final exam can take on any value within a continuous range (such as 0.01 seconds or 3 hours and 15 minutes), this is an example of a continuous random variable. The variable is not limited to specific, discrete values (such as only taking 1 hour, 2 hours, or 3 hours to finish the exam).