If Sally has a percentile score of 53, what does this indicate?

• A. 53 percent of the group tested had a score at or below Sally's.
• B. Sally scored higher than 53 percent of the group.
• C. 53 percent of the test items were answered correctly by Sally.
• D. Sally is at the 53rd percentile of a normal distribution.

Answer: (A)

Percentile rank shows where a score stands relative to a group. A percentile of 53 means that 53 percent of the scores in the group are at or below Sally’s score. In other words, Sally’s score places her higher than about 47 percent of the group. It’s not about the percentage of items she got correct, so that part is not related to percentile. And the idea doesn’t depend on the distribution being normal; percentile describes relative standing in any distribution. The statement about being at the 53rd percentile of a normal distribution isn’t necessary—the percentile itself is defined without assuming normality.