Median and Mode

Median

The median is the middle value of an ordered data set. To find it:

1. Arrange the values in ascending order.
2. If there is an odd number of values, the median is the middle one. Its position is $\frac{n + 1}{2}$, where $n$ is the number of values.
3. If there is an even number of values, the median is the mean of the two middle values.

For example, $3, 5, 7, 8, 12$ has 5 values. The median is the $\frac{5 + 1}{2} = 3\text{rd}$ value, which is $7$.

Mode

The mode is the value that occurs most frequently. A data set can have one mode, more than one mode, or no mode (if all values appear the same number of times).

For $2, 4, 4, 5, 7$, the mode is $4$ because it appears twice while every other value appears once.

Watch it work

Question: Find the median and mode of $6, 2, 9, 2, 7, 4, 2$.

Have a go