99.7 - 99.9 Percentile: Did you get a "T?"

[nebbione]

This is not a boast thread, so please, no "flaming."

When I got my MCAT scores, the writing percentile for a score of "T" lists the 99.7 - 99.9 percentile range. And yet on MDapplicants.com, I see Ts with relatively high frequency (obviously not high like more often than "R" let's say, but often enough to make me wonder how many people 0.02 percentile points entails).

If 30,000+ take the MCAT, then we are looking at how many people in this range?

Any math majors who can explain how the percentile system works and how we can quantify it?

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[RPedigo]

99.9th percentile means that you outscored 99.9% of the test-takers.

If 30,000 people take it, that means that you out-scored (.999*30 000) = 29,970 of them, and the other 30 people got the same score as you.

If you take the 99.7th percentile, then 30 000-(.997*30 000) = 90 people got a T

So between 30 and 90 people get a T every administration, apparently. Given that MDapplicants is a self-selected sample, its not suprising that you see so many.

I am terrible at math, but this is how I thought the whole percentile thing worked.

 

[xylem29]

This is not a boast thread, so please, no "flaming."

When I got my MCAT scores, the writing percentile for a score of "T" lists the 99.7 - 99.9 percentile range. And yet on MDapplicants.com, I see Ts with relatively high frequency (obviously not high like more often than "R" let's say, but often enough to make me wonder how many people 0.02 percentile points entails).

If 30,000+ take the MCAT, then we are looking at how many people in this range?

Any math majors who can explain how the percentile system works and how we can quantify it?

omg - that's soooo easy! Say you are in the 99.9%tile - that means you are in the top 0.1% and 99.8% of test takers got lower than you.

So, the top 0.1% of test takers, out of 30,000 is..... 0.001 x 30, 000 = 30.

Like, what's 10% of 100 people? 0.1 x 100 = 10

I'm not a math major!

 

[UMP]

This is not a boast thread, so please, no "flaming."

When I got my MCAT scores, the writing percentile for a score of "T" lists the 99.7 - 99.9 percentile range. And yet on MDapplicants.com, I see Ts with relatively high frequency (obviously not high like more often than "R" let's say, but often enough to make me wonder how many people 0.02 percentile points entails).

If 30,000+ take the MCAT, then we are looking at how many people in this range?

Any math majors who can explain how the percentile system works and how we can quantify it?

it's about 70000 people that took the MCAT this year... so about 70-210 total people got T's just this year. That's quite an accomplishment, you must be quite a writer... unfortunately you just can't do remedial math 😉

 

[gotmeds?]

Trust me, if you want to feel insecure about an otherwise-great MCAT score, just look on these forums. It does put things into perspective, though. You may be in the 90-whatever percentile for test-takers, but comapred to other applicants, that number drops considerably (imagine what the new curve would like when you cut out everyone below the 25 mark).

 

[Quix]

Trust me, if you want to feel insecure about an otherwise-great MCAT score, just look on these forums. It does put things into perspective, though. You may be in the 90-whatever percentile for test-takers, but comapred to other applicants, that number drops considerably (imagine what the new curve would like when you cut out everyone below the 25 mark).

I try not to, 😉.

 

[RSAgator]

as has been said MDapps and SDN in general are certainly NOT a good representation of the overall MCAT breakdown. Firstly as has been said many people will not post if they have a bad score, might not even apply to med school this cycle, or might not make an MDapps. Also I think that as a group the average scores for people on SDN are probably a bit higher than the overall average of students applying to med school simply because if you're the kind of person who puts time into reading/writing to a forum about medicine you're probably also the kind that finds every way to strengthen their apps and make sure they're doing everything correctly.

 

[xylem29]

as has been said MDapps and SDN in general are certainly NOT a good representation of the overall MCAT breakdown. Firstly as has been said many people will not post if they have a bad score, might not even apply to med school this cycle, or might not make an MDapps. Also I think that as a group the average scores for people on SDN are probably a bit higher than the overall average of students applying to med school simply because if you're the kind of person who puts time into reading/writing to a forum about medicine you're probably also the kind that finds every way to strengthen their apps and make sure they're doing everything correctly.