How to calculate percentile? Is it possible to get 100 percentile?

agreseza

agreseza

Answered question

2021-12-23

How to calculate percentile? Is it possible to get 100 percentile?
How do we calculate percentile? I think it should be calculated as:
P= Total number of candidates
L= Number of candidates whose marks are below yours
Percentile=(LP)100
That means if you are the highest in the range, and there are 200,000 candidates and if your marks are same as 7 others then;
your percentile=(199992200000)100=99.996
That means in any circumstances you can't have perfect 100 percentile.

Answer & Explanation

Travis Hicks

Travis Hicks

Beginner2021-12-24Added 29 answers

There are different definitions of "percentile."
Usually a percentile is computed by first ranking all the data with 1 the lowest, 2 the next lowest, up through N. (The possibility of ties is a complication but does not change the essential idea.) Ranking from lowest to highest instead of highest to lowest is arbitrary but it gives definite rules. However, it would be nice if the percentile computed from ranking in one direction agreed with the percentile from ranking in the other.
You can convert a rank k into a percentile by:
- Computing 100k/N. This value will range from 100/N through 100NN=100. Note the asymmetry: the highest is 100 but the lowest is nonzero.
- Computing 100k1N. This is the rule quoted in the question. The value will range from 0 through 100N1N<100.
- You can make the range of percentiles symmetric. This means that the percentile corresponding to rank k is 100 minus the percentile corresponding the rank in reverse order, which is N+1k. To do this, compute 100k12N. The values range from 1002N  100(112N).
- There are other ways to make the range symmetric. For instance, compute 100k1N1. Values range from 0 through 100.
(There are yet other rules, used especially for constructing probability plots, but you get the idea.)
Either using the first rule, the last rule, or rounding to the nearest percent, can produce a 100th percentile. As I recall, Excel's function for computing percentiles can produce 100 for the top-ranked value.
Melissa Moore

Melissa Moore

Beginner2021-12-25Added 32 answers

To put it in words, being in the 100 percentile would mean that 100% of the group has marks below yours. But since 100% of the group would include you, and your mark could never be below your mark, then 100% of the group could not be below you. Therefore you could never be in the 100 percentile.
user_27qwe

user_27qwe

Skilled2021-12-30Added 375 answers

How to project a percentile between a range of numbers:
Suppose you have a range of integers between: 512
The current value to be calculated is 6. What percentile is 6 in the range? Answer:
(currentmin)(maxmin)
Which breaks down to:
65125=17=.1429
So that means 6 is about 14% on the way between 5 and 12.

karton

karton

Expert2023-06-14Added 613 answers

To calculate the percentile of a particular value within a dataset, you can follow these steps:
1. Arrange the dataset in ascending order.
2. Count the total number of data points in the dataset (denoted by P).
3. Determine the number of data points below the given value (denoted by L).
4. Use the formula P=(LP)×100 to calculate the percentile.
Now, let's address your question about achieving a 100 percentile. In theory, it is possible to have a percentile score of 100. However, in practice, it depends on the context and the distribution of the data.
In your example, you mentioned that there are 200,000 candidates, and if your marks are the same as 7 others, you would like to calculate your percentile. According to your calculation, the percentile would be (199,992200,000)×10099.996.
In this case, you are correct that, due to the rounding of decimal places, you would not achieve a perfect 100 percentile. However, this does not mean that it is impossible to achieve a 100 percentile in all circumstances. It depends on the range and distribution of scores within the dataset.
If you are the highest scorer and there are no other candidates with the same score as you, then your percentile would indeed be 100. However, if there are other candidates with the same score, your percentile might be slightly lower due to rounding.
It's important to note that percentiles are typically used to compare an individual's performance relative to others in a dataset. Achieving a percentile score of 100 would indicate that you performed better than all other candidates in the dataset.
star233

star233

Skilled2023-06-14Added 403 answers

Given
Percentile=(LP)×100
where:
- Percentile is the percentile you want to calculate,
- L is the number of candidates whose marks are below yours, and
- P is the total number of candidates.
According to your calculations, if you are the highest in the range and there are 200,000 candidates, and your marks are the same as 7 others, then:
Percentile=(199992200000)×100=99.996
Based on this formula, you are correct that it is not possible to have a perfect 100 percentile in any circumstances. This is because the percentile is determined by the number of candidates who scored lower than you, relative to the total number of candidates. If you are the highest, there will always be a fraction of candidates who scored lower, making the percentile slightly below 100.

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