Percentiles what do they mean

Style: MLA. English Language Learners Definition of percentile. Medical Definition of percentile. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? Love words? Need even more definitions? Just between us: it's complicated.

Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'? The median is located exactly in the middle of the data set, with half of all the data below it. The third quartile is the place where three-fourths of the data lies below it. The median, first quartile, and third quartile can all be stated in terms of percentiles. Since half of the data is less than the median, and one-half is equal to 50 percent, the median marks the 50th percentile.

One-fourth is equal to 25 percent, so the first quartile marks the 25th percentile. The third quartile marks the 75th percentile. Besides quartiles, a fairly common way to arrange a set of data is by deciles. Each decile includes 10 percent of the data set. This means that the first decile is the 10th percentile , the second decile is the 20th percentile, etc.

Deciles provide a way to split a data set into more pieces than quartiles without splitting the set into pieces as with percentiles. Percentile scores have a variety of uses.

Anytime that a set of data needs to be broken into digestible chunks, percentiles are helpful. They are often used to interpret test scores—such as SAT scores—so that test-takers can compare their performance to that of other students. For example, a student might earn a score of 90 percent on an exam. That sounds pretty impressive; however, it becomes less so when a score of 90 percent corresponds to the 20th percentile, meaning only 20 percent of the class earned a score of 90 percent or lower.

Another example of percentiles is in children's growth charts. In addition to giving a physical height or weight measurement, pediatricians typically state this information in terms of a percentile score. A percentile is used in order to compare the height or weight of a child to other children of the same age. This allows for an effective means of comparison so that parents can know if their child's growth is typical or unusual.

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