confused about PGRE score

[cartonn30gel]

So I'm kind of new to all this scoring on the PGRE. My "score" is 990, but my "% below" says 95%, not 99%. From what I read, 990 seems to be the max possible. So are there people with 990 score and a greater percentile? Or is 990 & 95% the best one could possibly get?

Thanks in advance

[The_Duck]

990 is the max possible score. Your percentile is the fraction of people who you scored higher than; ~5% of people got a 990, so your percentile is 95%.

[grae313]

To actually answer your question, 95% is the highest percentile you can get on the exam you took. Each is a little different, but 990 never corresponds to 99th percentile and for each exam there is a different maximum percentile that a 990 corresponds to. There is no differentiation in the top 5% so that there can be more differentiation among the middle 2/3rds of the test takers.

[cartonn30gel]

Thanks a lot! That clarifies everything.

[physics123]

Anyone else find it amusing that the OP got a perfect score but couldn't figure out what the percentile meant?

[grae313]

I'm sure he knows perfectly well what his percentile means, he was just asking if it was possible to get a 990 and higher than 95%. It's a legitimate question; since 990 does not correspond to 100% on the test, they could calculate percentiles above 95 if they wanted to.

[quizivex]

Yea, it's a legit question. If the cutoff is 85 and he got a 95, that's the same difference as an 85 vs. a 75, and a 75 might only get 890. So someone who gets a raw score way above the cutoff for a 990 might wish to be given credit for it in his percentile... That's reasonable because internationals with 990's get rejected very often. But right now there is no benefit to scoring higher.

[physics123]

They show how the scoring works at the back of the practice exams. There is no 990 95% and 990 97%. I think it's amusing because of the lengthy 100 question exam, this was the easiest part to understand (at least for myself). I don't mean to bash the OP, it's just a minor roast. Certainly people should ask questions if they don't understand something. But really, I can't be the only one who thought asking why a perfect score was not better was kind of hilarious

[CarlBrannen]

Anyone else find it amusing that the OP got a perfect score but couldn't figure out what the percentile meant?

Yes.