Median Scores

I am back on the Centerline Scores thing. I know many of you don't care about scores, but I do. Scores are feedback for me; they tell me how I am improving and where I still need to focus my energy.

You already know that I show at a variety of show types: unrated schooling shows, California Dressage Society (CDS)  rated shows, and USDF/USEF shows.  I choose my shows based on a wide variety of criteria: price, distance from home, time of year, etc. While I value the comments from all judges, whatever the show rating, I recognize that the most critical, and hardest earned, scores come at USDF shows. which is why I love Centerlinescores.com.

Jay Stevens, the creator and mastermind, designed the site just for me; I know it. I love how I can track my progress at USDF shows through his multiple "windows." Lately, I've been watching my scores grow at Training Level Test 2 and Test 3. Granted, there aren't that many scores to compare, but even so, there is a small pattern of improvement emerging.

Eight scores in the 50s and eleven scores in the 60s

My favorite feature of the site is the Lifetime Median Scores percentage. For a while, my median score at Training Level was hovering at 59%. My goal has been to push my median to over 60%. I am curious to know why Jay chose to show median scores (the score in the middle) rather than mean (the average). My median score is 60.893% while my mean score is 60.387% - very close to one another.

I would guess that it is because an outlier score (an overly high or overly low number) would tip the mean up or down which could create a number that doesn't really reflect a typical average. For example, if you scored 60%, 61%, 63%, and 80%, your mean would be 66% but in actuality, you were mostly a 60%ish rider. Using those same scores, your median would be 62% which seems more in line with your typical scores.

In order to raise my median score of 60.893%, I need to earn scores higher than 60.9%. This goal fits right in with my goal of eliminating the 5s from my score sheets. A sheet filled with 6s and 7s will easily be in the 65% range - that kind of score will push my median ever upward.

No medals yet, but I am on my way with the Rider Performance Award