"SELECT COUNT(*) FROM tbl WHERE score>$score" Causing Excessive Load?

programming
1

MySQL v3.x
PHP v4.x

I have a scoring table with almost 15,000 rows. Ranking a particular person is required.

I currently have this script to calculate the rank:


$myScore = 233292;
$result = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) as count FROM tbl WHERE score>$myScore");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);
echo "You rank $row[count].";   // You rank 123422.

which… according to my web host, is causing excessive server load.

I’m wondering if there’s any other way to optimize it?

thanks!