SAT Verbal Scores

Question

Suppose that you had a score of 690 on the verbal section of the SAT Reasoning Test (see the SAT Verbal Scores table). Round your answer to one decimal place.

What is your percentile score?

Answer 1

We cannot calculate the exact percentile, because we do not know the exact distribution within 650-699 category. However, we can calculate a range of plausible percentile values. Since percentile is defined as the proportion below a given value, we know that AT LEAST 89% are below a 690 (10.8+14.5+17.3+17.5+13.5+8.3+4.2+1.8+1). Thus, the lowest plausible value for the percentile is 89th percentile.

The highest plausible value for the percentile would occur if all students in the 560-699 category (except for you) were actually below 690. Then the total percentage of everyone below you would be 95.3 (89+6.3).

Overall, then, we know that your percentile is somewhere between 89 and 95.3. Because 690 is closer to 699 than 650 (and because of the nature of a bell-shaped curve), it is likely that the percentile is closer to 95.3 than 89, but we do not know this for sure based on the information given.

ANSWER: somewhere between 89 and 95.3