[MATH] Median vs. Average

[NewtonMP2100]

.....hmmm, this post seems to be like every other math post [AVERAGE]........

[DP]

freeradical wrote:
Changing how you report your data from mean to median implies something, and I don't think I like it.

You should choose how you report your data depending upon what your data is.

For example, home prices are typically reported in median values because there tend to be lots of outliers in real estate data. By using median values, you get a better feel for what prices are really like.

What would be the most honest way to represent your data?

Kind of what I was thinking. Math aside, is the school telling you to raise the grades higher than they should be? Isn't this one example of what plagues our educational system?

[Drew]

DP wrote:
Kind of what I was thinking. Math aside, is the school telling you to raise the grades higher than they should be? Isn't this one example of what plagues our educational system?

It's probably not your educational system. This is a university in Japan. Bizarro world. Don't get me started. :-)

[Don C]

Your prior solution could be improved by using Tools/Goal seek in Excel.

There are three entries:
The cell you want to reflect a specific value
The value you want that cell to reflect
A cell involved in the calculation that should be changed.

In the case you described, I presume you calculated the class average so that cell reference is entered into box one.

Then in box two you enter the value you want the class average to be.

In the third box enter "F4" which is the constant that you adjust to make the average come out right. Excel tries a bunch of values in F4 until the average matches the value you set as a goal.