Difference between ‘percentage’ and ‘percentile’? 

Hello future-docs and dear parents! I was really confused when I was first told that the exam result comes out in the form of percentiles. So, I had researched a little and tried to understand what percentiles are. Have you ever been confused between percentiles and percentages too? Here’s what I gathered from my NEET experience.

Introduction to Exam Results in Percentile Scores

See, choosing percentiles to put out results was an important choice made by the NTA. This choice was made because percentiles give an idea of how you performed in comparison to other applicants, other people who gave the exam. 

To be honest, at the end of the day, the exam is not just about how many questions you got right. The exam is also about how you did in comparison to other people. All the competitive exams are trying to filter out the best performing students, this assessment can be done with the help of percentiles.

Understanding Percentiles and Percentile Ranks

Imagine a race. You finish 10th in a group of 100 runners. That’s your rank- 10th. Also, if you finished before 90 other runners, you did better than 90% of the runners. This means that you’re in the 90th percentile. Simple, right?

• Now, if we were to extend this ‘race’ metaphor to exams, we can understand how percentiles work. Percentiles tell us the number of people who scored less than you. So if you get a 90 percentile in NEET, it will mean that 90% of the exam givers scored less than you and it will also mean that you did better than 90% of the people. You did not get 90% marks if you got 90 percentile.

All India Rank will be your rank. This is very simple. In the above example, it will be calculated based on the number of exam givers. So it can be anything. If we take a case of a perfect score of 720/720, your rank will probably be AIR 1/2/3 depending on the number of people who have scored 720/720 and the rank deciding criteria.

The crazy competition for NEET

The competition for all the national exams like NEET and JEE just keeps increasing More than 24 lakh aspirants have already registered for NEET UG 2024. With such a crazy competition, every mark and every point of the percentile matters.

• What does this competition mean? When you are put in such a big bunch of competitors, it’s not just about scoring high; it’s about scoring higher than others. This means, you don’t have to worry about your personal best only. You have to make sure that your personal best is better than others.
• Relative vs. Absolute Performance: You might score 85% in the exam, but if most students have scored 90% and above, then the 85% is not a good score anymore. Now, your relative performance (how you did compared to others) is more important than your absolute performance (how many questions you got right). Also, this is why NTA uses percentiles. As they can help measure the relative performance better than percentages

Why Percentile Scores Matter in Admission

Percentiles can help identify if you will get admission into your dream college. Competitive exams like NEET, JEE, and CET are not just about testing a student’s knowledge but also about ranking them among lakhs of aspirants. 

• Multiple Exam Sessions: For exams conducted in multiple sessions, like JEE Main, there can be slight variations in the difficulty level of the papers. Percentiles help in making a standard measurement of performance. This ensures that every student is judged on an equal scale.
• Predicting College Admissions: Institutions use percentiles to shortlist candidates. Knowing your percentile can give you a clearer idea of which colleges you might get into. It helps you in looking up previous year cutoffs and assessing if you will get admission into a college based on that cutoff.
• Personal Growth Tracking: For students taking the exam multiple times, tracking percentile scores can be a good indicator of how well prepared they are in this attempt as opposed to the previous attempts. A jump in percentile can show significant progress, even if the raw score has only increased by a few marks.

Conclusion

Percentiles might seem confusing at first, but they’re a powerful tool in understanding your performance. It’s not just about the score but about the bigger picture. So next time you see percentiles, I’m sure you’ll know exactly what they mean.