Find the 3rd highest score with LARGE

Beginner

When you need to pull the top values from a list, sorting the data first can be disruptive, especially when you want to keep the original order intact.

The LARGE function returns the k-th largest value in a range, where k is a number you supply. It takes two arguments:

=LARGE(array, k)

  • array: the range of numbers to look through
  • k: which rank you want (1 for the highest, 2 for the second highest, and so on)

For example, =LARGE(A1:A10, 1) returns the highest value in A1:A10.

What you need to do

The spreadsheet shows test scores for 8 students in column B (B2:B9). Below the table, cells B11, B12, and B13 are where you'll enter your formulas.

Enter a LARGE formula in each of those three cells. Each formula uses the same score range, but the k value should match the rank shown in column A.

Need some help?

Hint 1

The range of scores (B2:B9) stays exactly the same in all three formulas. Only the second argument changes as you move from B11 to B12 to B13.

Hint 2

Each label tells you the rank: 1st highest, 2nd highest, 3rd highest. This is the number you should pass as k to get the second-highest result.

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