What is percentile ? can anyone define, for a layman to understand?

Question

What is percentile ? can anyone define, for a layman to understand?

Answer 1

percentile (pr-sntl)

Any of the 100 equal parts into which the range of the values of a set of data can be divided in order to show the distribution of those values. The percentile of a given value is determined by the percentage of the values that are smaller than that value. For example, a test score that is higher than 95 percent of the other scores is in the 95th percentile.

per·cen·tile (pr-sntl) n.

One of a set of points on a scale arrived at by dividing a group into parts in order of magnitude. For example, a score equal to or greater than 97 percent of those attained on an examination is said to be in the 97th percentile.

Answer 2

if somebody scored 100 percentile that it means that there are no other person above this person's score....if u score 99 percentile then it means there is one person above u...at this score...

Answer 3

u can better understand with an example

if ur percentile in an entrance test is 90....it means 90% of students who have written the examination are below u

Answer 4

There is no 100th percentile. Percentile refers to the percentage which falls below whatever is being graded. The 99th percentile is the top 1%. The 98th percentile is the top 2%, the 50th percentile is the top 50%.

Answer 5

It's a comparative figure(ratio) that I can best describe like this.

When I joined the Army I had to take the ASVAB(Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery).

After it was graded I learned that I scored a 96 percentile.

That means that I scored as well as or better than 96 percent of the people who took the test on that day.

Hope I helped.

Good luck

Answer 6

Its a way to generalize your score in something.

for example, if i take a test and score in the 80th percentile, then i will have score at or above 80% of the people who took the test.