Answer to Question #169131 in Statistics and Probability for mary jane cordova

Question

BASED ON PERCENTILES AND PERCENTAGES, WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING SITUATIONS DO YOU PREFER AND WHY? DIFFERENTIATE THE TWO SITUATIONS AND EXPLAIN YOUR CHOICE IN NOT LESS THAN 10 SENTENCES.

A TEST SCORE OF 90% AND A PERCENTILE RANK OF 20.

A TEST SCORE OF 70% AND A PERCENTILE RANK OF 90.

Answer 1

Percentiles express all the observations of a given occurrence, below a certain percentage of that occurrence. Percentages give us an indication of how well an individual person performed on a test. Percentiles give us an indication of how well that person did compared to others. Percentile rank isn’t directly related to how many questions someone answered correctly. It is indicates where the person's score fits among every other test takers’ scores.

The person with a test score of 90% answered on 90% of the test questions. But only 20% of the participants obtained worse scores than the given person. As much as 80% of the participants obtained better scores than the given person.

The person with a test score of 70% answered on 70% of the test questions. But only 10% of the participants obtained better scores than the given person. As much as 90% of the participants obtained worse scores than the given person.

Therefore, I would prefer the second situation (a test score of 70% and a percentile rank of 90).