Median

Definition

Median in plain English

The median is the middle value once you line all your numbers up from smallest to largest, half the data sits below it, half above. Its big strength is that it ignores wild outliers: if you list the incomes of ten friends and one is a billionaire, the median still reflects a 'typical' person, while the average would get yanked way up. If there's an even number of values with no single middle, you just average the two in the center. It's the honest 'what's normal here?' number.

Learn these first

• Arithmetic Mean
• Mode

Related GMAT terms

• Absolute Value
• Arithmetic Mean
• Composite Number
• Discrete Data
• Discriminant
• Domain
• Exponent
• Factorial
• Greatest Common Divisor (GCD)
• Independent Events