Three parcels contain 3, 7 and 9 items. What is the median number of items?

Explanation

With three values arranged in order, the median is the one standing centrally, so 3, 7 and 9 gives a median of 7 items. Averaging only the two largest counts, 7 and 9, gives 8 items and simply drops the smallest parcel from the calculation, while the figure 6.33 items is the mean of all three counts, which shares the total out evenly instead of naming the count that sits in the centre of the ordered data.