Percentile Rank

There are many ways to measure and evaluate things, but one of the most common is by comparison. Percentile ranks indicate the percentage of scores lower than any given value on a scale from 1–99. For example, if 100 students took a history test, a percentile rank of 36 would mean that the student's score was better than that of 36 other students. If 200 students had taken the test, a percentile rank of 36 would indicate that the student had scored higher than 72 others.

Percentile ranks are based on cumulative frequencies, which are the number of scores equal to or less than a given value. Cumulative frequencies are found by placing all of the scores in order from lowest to highest and adding the ...