Difference Between Percentage and Percentile for JEE Main 2024

Percentages, and Percentiles, are two closely related but distinct concepts that are crucial in understanding scores from tests taken prior to employment. Many people are very at ease with percentages. At school, all of our work was graded using percentages. We used them to determine sales tax. The packaging of food items also has them to show the recommended daily dose of vitamins per serving. We see them often throughout our day-to-day lives. However, "percentile" is a similar word meaning something entirely different and you might not have come across it previously. Here's how to distinguish between the two.

Definition of Percentage

The percentage refers to the proportion of a whole that is represented by a particular value. In mathematical terms, the percentage is defined as the ratio of two numbers where the numerator is the number being considered and the denominator is 100.

For example, if you have a total of 300 students in your class and 20 of them are girls, then the percentage of girls in your class would be calculated by dividing 20 by 300, which gives us 0.0667 or approximately seven percent.

Definition of Percentile

A percentile (from Latin "per centum", meaning "by hundred") is a measure used in statistics indicating the relative position of observation within a sample set. The term percentile indicates that this value is at the given point divided by the number of data that are at or below this point.

For example, when you take your school exams you could score in certain percentiles if your results were good enough to be recorded by the examiners.

Importance of Percentage

The importance of percentage is more because it is used in business and finance, whereas percentile can be used in any field. The percentage is more important to know when you are counting something like votes or money. This gives you your percentage. Percentile would not work here because we are not considering individual data points - we are only looking at where this value falls within our whole set of data. The percentage is also used when measuring things like profit margins, attrition rates, and other ratios to give us an understanding of how businesses are performing in relation to one another. The percentage is important when measuring things like sales revenue because it tells you the scale of your own business compared with others in similar industries.

Importance of Percentile

The percentile is also used in many fields and it allows you to compare your value against other values. This can be seen when we look at the SAT scores where a student's score would be compared with everyone else who has taken this test before them. Percentile is an important factor for admission tests, like SATs or GREs because they allow colleges to understand how students are performing within their school year group. They use percentiles as part of these tests so that every single person gets ranked based on what everybody else is doing too - not just themselves alone which could skew results if somebody was very high achieving compared to others around them.

Here are Some Tips to study Percentage and Percentile

1. Learn the accurate meaning- it is important to learn the accurate meaning of both terms in order to avoid confusion. The percentage refers to the number of something in relation to a hundred- Percentile indicates that this value is at the given point divided by the number of data that are at or below this point. It is important to learn both definitions because they each have their own specific purposes.

2. Know where to apply- one should know where to apply both terms specifically. The percentage is mostly used in business and finance to compare ratios, while percentile can be used in any field.

3. Knowing when to use which term correctly will help one score better on exams like the SATs or GREs where percentiles are important factors for admission.

4. Practice questions- to become better at Percentage and Percentile, it is important to do practice questions. This will help increase understanding of how to solve these types of questions.

5. Avoid cramming- lastly, it is important to avoid cramming. This will only lead to confusion and misunderstanding of the terms. Cramming right before an exam will not do much good in the long run.