Not very sure, but see whether this returns what you're after:

Try in say, L1: =AVERAGE(LARGE(C1:K1,{1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8}))

And for the Conditional Formatting:

Select C1:K1 (with C1 active)
Put as the cond format formula:
=C1=MIN($C1:$K1)
Format to taste OK out

In the event of ties in the minimum value within C1:K1,
the CF will trigger all occurences
--
Rgds
Max
xl 97
---
Singapore, GMT+8
xdemechanik
http://savefile.com/projects/236895
--
"MedicEric" wrote in message
...
I want to average a series of grades (ex: C1 through K1), but want to drop
the lowest score in the series. However if 2 or more grades are the same,
I
want to drop only ONE of them. Additionally I wish to have that "dropped"
grade highlighted (conditionally formatted) in the list even though it is
not
calculated into the average.