Past exam of the statistics course of the University of Oxford / 2015 / 1 / a / ii

For odd sample size, the sample median is the central order statistic, $M_U=U_{(m+1)}$. Since $n=2m+1$, its index is $r=(n+1)/2$ and $n-r+1=(n+1)/2$. Substitute these into the expectation and variance formulas from part (i):In fact $M_U$ has the symmetric beta distribution $\mathrm{Beta}(m+1,m+1)$, explaining why its expectation is exactly the centre of the interval.