Median
The table above shows the number of students enrolled at Allenville Middle School from 2005 to 2011. If the median enrollment over these seven years was 789, and no two years had the same number of students enrolled, what is the lowest possible value for y?
Knowsys Method
Note: In the math section of the SAT, you will encounter questions that do not have answer choices. Instead of bubbling in a letter, you will bubble in your answer. These questions are called grid in questions, and you should always guess an answer for them because there is no penalty for getting the question wrong!
Read the problem carefully. Review the definitions of important terms. The median is the middle number in a set of numbers.
Identify the bottom line. lowest possible y = ?
Assess your options. There is only one possible method for solving this problem, and it is demonstrated below.
Attack the problem. Whenever you are working with medians, you should start by putting the list of numbers in order.
737 755 776 789 804 811
Now you need to determine where y should fall in the list. The problem tells you that 789 is the median, and no two years had the same enrollment, so y must be greater than 789. The smallest that y can be, therefore, is 790.
Loop back. Check to verify that you have solved for the bottom line.
The correct answer is 790.
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