STATISTICAL ANALYSIS WITH SOFTWARE PROGRAMMING

SECOND YEAR – FIRST SEM | A.Y. 2023-2024

PERCENTILES
LESSON 2.3: MEASURES OF RELATIVE POSITION − most standardized examinations provide
OVERVIEW scores in terms of percentiles, which are
The measures of position are used to defined as follows:
describe the location of a specific piece of data in
relation to the rest of the sample. pth Percentile
− a value x is called the pth percentile of a data
QUANTILES set provide p% of the data values are less than
− are values which divide the distribution into a x.
given number of equal parts.
Example:
1. Median In a recent year, the median annual salary for a
− divide the distribution into two equal parts. physical therapist was $74,480. If the 90th
percentile for the annual salary of a physical
2. Quartiles therapist was $105,900, find the percent of physical
− divide the distribution into four equal parts. (Q1, therapists whose annual salary was:
Q2, Q3, Q4) a. more than P74,480
3. Deciles b. less than P105,900
− divide the distribution into ten equal parts. (D1, c. between P74,480 and P105,900
D2, …, D10)
Solution:
4. Percentiles or Centiles In a recent year, the median annual salary for a
− divide the distribution into one-hundred equal physical therapist was $74,480. If the 90th
parts. (P1, P2, …, P100) percentile for the annual salary of a physical
therapist was $105,900, find the percent of physical
Remarks: Md = Q2 = D5 = P50 therapists whose annual salary was:

FOR UNGROUPED DATA a. By definition, the median is the 50th

Steps in Solving for Quantile Measures percentile. Therefore, 50% of the physical therapists
a. Arrange first the scores according to magnitude earned more than
or size. P74,480.
b. Compute the location of the given percentile. b. Because P105,900 is the 90th percentile,
90% of all physical therapists made less than
P105,900.
c. From parts a and b, 90% - 50% = 40% of
the physical therapists earned between P74,480
c. Starting from the lowest score, locate the score and P105,900.
corresponding to the obtained position in the
distribution. The following formula can be used to find the
percentile (rank) that corresponds to a particular
d. Interpolate to get the score if the obtained data value in a set of data.
position from step (b) is not exact. That is, locate
the inexact position, and get the difference
between the upper and lower scores; multiply the
difference by the decimal part of the inexact
location obtained; and finally, add the product to
the lower score. Example:
A teacher gives a 20-point test to 10 students. The
Example: scores are as follows: 12, 14, 10, 19, 8, 11, 9, 18, 7,
Given the following data: 26 51 44 23 25 61 45 65 23 and 20. Find the percentile rank of the score 10.
43 41 55 34 35 Find: (a) D4, (b) P25, (c) Q3 Solution:
Solution: Array: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19, 20
Array: 23 23 25 26 34 35 41 43 44 45 51 55 61 65
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS WITH SOFTWARE PROGRAMMING
SECOND YEAR – FIRST SEM | A.Y. 2023-2024

FOR GROUPED DATA Example 1. Compare z-Scores

Illustration 1: ‘
Raul has taken two tests in his chemistry class. He
Determine the Q3 and D7 wage of 20 employees
scored 72 on the first test, for which the mean of all
of ABC Company.
scores was 65 and the standard deviation was 8.
He received a 60 on the second test, for which the
mean of all scores was 45 and the standard
deviation was 12. In comparison to the other
students, did Raul do better on the first test or the
second test?

Solution:

Raul scored 0.875 standard deviation above the

mean on the first test and 1.25 standard deviations
above the mean on the second test. These z-scores
indicate that, in comparison to his classmates, Raul
STANDARDIZED TESTS AND PERCENTILES scored better on the second test than he did on
− Standardized tests, such as the Scholastic the first test.
Assessment Test (SAT), are designed to measure Example 2. Use z-Scores
all students by a single standard. The SAT is used
by many colleges as part of their admissions A consumer group tested a sample of 100 light
criteria. It usually measures verbal and bulbs. It found that the mean life expectancy of
mathematical reasoning skills and are the bulbs was 842 h, with a standard deviation of
generally reported in points and percentiles. 90. One particular light bulb from the DuraBright
Sometimes students are confused by the Company had a z-score of 1.2. What was the life
percentile score. For instance, if a student span of this light bulb?
scores 650 points on the mathematics portion Solution:
of the SAT and is told that this score is in the 85th Substitute the given value into the z-score equation
percentile, this does not indicate that the and solve for x.
student answered 85% of the questions
correctly. An 85th percentile score means that
the student scored higher than 85% of the
students who took the test. Consequently, the
student scored lower than 15% (100% - 85%) of
the students who took the test.
The light bulb had a life span of 950
Z-SCORE hours.
The z-score for a given data value x is the
number of standard deviations that x is above or QUARTILE AND BOX
below the mean. The quartiles of a data set are the three
numbers, Q1, Q2, and Q3 that partition the ranked
data into four (approximately) equal groups. Q2 is
the median of the data, Q1 is the median of the
data values less than Q2, and Q3 is the median of
the data values greater than Q2.

− box-and-whisker plot (sometimes called a box

plot) is often used to provide a visual summary
of a set of data. A box-and-whisper plot shows
the median, the first and third quartiles, and the
maximum and minimum values of a data set.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS WITH SOFTWARE PROGRAMMING
SECOND YEAR – FIRST SEM | A.Y. 2023-2024

Construction of a Box-and-Whisker Plot Step 2: The median of these 25 data values has a
1. Draw a horizontal scale that extends from the rank of 12. Thus the median is 43. The second
minimum data value to the maximum data value. quartile Q2 is the median of the data, so Q2 = 43.
2. Above the scale, draw a rectangle (box) with its Step 3: There are 12 data values less than the
left side at Q1 and its right side at Q3. median and 12 data values greater than the
median. The first quartile is the median of the data
3. Draw a vertical line segment across the
values less than the median. Thus, Q1 is the mean
rectangle at the median, Q2.
of the data values with ranks of 6 and 7. The third
4. Draw a horizontal line segment, called a whisker, quartile is the median of the data values greater
that extends from Q1 to the minimum and another than the median. Thus, Q3 is the mean of the data
whisker that extends from Q3 to the maximum. values with ranks of 19 and 20.

Example. Construct a Box-and-Whisker Plot

Construct a box-and-whisker plot for the data set
in the above example.
Example of a Box-and-Whisker Plot Solution:
For the data set in the above example, we
Note on Outliers: determined that Q1 = 39, Q2 = 43, and Q3 = 51.5.
Data sets can sometimes contain outliers that are The minimum data value for the data set is 26, and
suspected to be anomalies (perhaps because of the maximum data value is 73. Thus, the box-and-
data collection errors or just plain old flukes). If whisker plot is as shown below.
outliers are present, the whisker on the appropriate
side is drawn to 1.5 * IQR rather than the data
minimum or the data maximum. Small circles or
unfilled dots are drawn on the chart to indicate
where suspected outliers lie. Filled circles are used
for known outliers..

Box-and-Whisker Plot with Outliers

Example. Use median to finds the quartiles of a

data set.

Solution:
Step 1: Rank the data as shown in the following
table.