So I have a Django app that processes test results, and I'm trying to find the median score for a certain assessment. I would think that this would work: e = Exam.objects.all() total = e.count() median = int(round(total / 2)) median_exam = Exam.objects.filter(assessment=assessment.id).order_by('score')[median:1] median_score = median_exam.score But it always returns an empty list. I can get the result I want with this: e = Exam.objects.all() total = e.count() median = int(round(total / 2)) exams = Exam.objects.filter(assessment=assessment.id).order_by('score') median_score = median_exam[median].score I would just prefer not to have to query the entire set of exams. I thought about just writing a raw MySQL query that looks something like: SELECT score FROM assess_exam WHERE assessment_id = 5 ORDER BY score LIMIT 690,1 But if possible, I'd like to stay within Django's ORM. Mostly, it's just bothering me that I can't seem to use order_by with a filter and a limit. Any ideas?