Anyone else think ACT percentiles are wrong?

Test Preparation
1

<p>According to the percentile chart on the ACT website, 32 and above is in the 99th percentile. However, virtually all of my friends scored 32 or higher. This includes people who scored below 2000 on the SAT, below 200 on the PSAT, and never seemed extraordinarily intelligent. In fact, I think ten or so people in my grade have scored 32 or higher and I do not, by any means, go to a highly competitive school. We only had 2 National Merit Finalists last year. It just seems odd that so many people scored in the "99th percentile."</p>

2

<p>You have to remember what type of students your sample is composed of. To explain you and your friends getting 32+, remember you are likely serious academic students and put some effort into the test. The people who got 32+s despite scoring sub 2000 on the SAT can be explained by how people perform differently depending on the test. Lastly, although your public high school may not be “competitive” in your eyes, compare it to the thousands of high schools nationwide. It probably performs at a higher standard than rural and urban high schools. Not being on the Newsweek Best High School list doesn’t mean your high school is non-competitive. </p>

<p>Now think about the thousands of “average” high school students scoring the nationwide average of 21 on the ACT. Assuming the scores have a normal distribution and a standard deviation of around 4 points on the composite, the percentiles make perfect sense. </p>

<p>Although your sample may not be consistent with the percentiles, you have to remember the law of large numbers will make up for any inconsistencies in the long run.</p>

3

<p>Also, the group of people you know/go to school with is too teensy-weensy a sample to be meaningful when talking about national testing.</p>

<p>Fwiw, though, my D (whose sample size is also meaningless) says your findings aren’t true for her group. Her ACT 32s all got above 2000, 33s and 34s correlate to 2100s and 2200s pretty much across the board.</p>

4

<p>Yes, the percentiles are incorrect. 32 is the 97.2nd percentile.</p>

5

<p>^Where did you get that information? I would like to know. I’m not saying you are are wrong; I’m just wondering what your source was.</p>

6

<p>The percentiles that ACT lists on its Web site are favorably-rounded figures that are averages of the last several years’ data. They do not accurately reflect the reality today. The true percentiles can be calculated by using the raw data from the latest national ACT report: <a href=“http://www.act.org/news/data/09/pdf/National2009.pdf[/url]”>http://www.act.org/news/data/09/pdf/National2009.pdf&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;