Hi Brittany
To find the mean, what we normally think of as an average, add the scores and divide by the number of scores
70+72+99+72+69 = 382
382/5 = 76.4
To find the median, first rearrange the scores so they are in numerical order
69, 70, 72, 72, 99
When displayed this way, the median is the middle value, which in this case is 72.
Which is a better description of the typical math score quiz.
This is subject to opinion. In school, the average that is used is the mean. But notice that 76.4 is higher than 4 of the 5 scores. While the median is somewhat better, there is still only one number higher than the median.
In this case, the score of 99 is an outlier and if you were considering how this person typically performs on a quiz, one might suggest throwing it out and finding the average, mean or median of the remaining 4 scores.
Discarding the outlier, 99, and recalculating, we have
mean = (70+72+72+69)/4 = 70.75
median = (70+72)/2 = 71
