What's a percentile ranking?

Question

I GOT A 42%! IT SAYS I DID BETTER THEN 42% OF THE PEOPLE THAT TOOK THE TEST! A LOT OF PEOPLE TOOK THIS TEST!

DID I DO GOOD OR BAD

Answer 1

A percentile ranking is based on 100%. If 100 people took a test and you did better than 42% of them, then you rank 43 out of 100. Sorry to say, this is not an overly good score for you.

Answer 2

If you were in the 90th percentile, then you did better than 90 percent of the people who took the test. That's most of the people who took the test. Only 10% did better than you.

If you were in the 50th percentile, then half of the population did better than you, and the other half did worse than you.

If you were in the 42nd percentile, then you did better than 42% of the populationd. And 58% did better than you.

Now above is an explanation of percentiles. However, I think that you are confusing percentile with percentage. This is a common misconception. Let's say you take a history test with 100 items on it, and you get 1 percentage point for each answer you get correct. And you get 42 out of the 100 questions correct, your grade would be a 42%.

But whether it is the 42nd percentile or 42%, I would say unfortunately, "No, you did not do well."

Answer 3

42% is not that good. It's the lower end of the spectrum. Typcally you want to be in the 80% or above section. If you can take the test again it is recommended. This means that 58% of those tested did better than you did. That's not impressive. It means that you are behind more people that you are in front of.

Percentile Rank
Percentile Rank (PR) score indicates the percent of students in the norm or reference group whose scores for a test fall below a particular student’s raw score. National Percentile Rankings are based on the performance of students nationwide. State Percentile Rankings are based on the performance of the statewide group, while Local Percentile Rankings are based on student scores from Union Public Schools.