LOCATING

PERCENTILES UNDER
THE NORMAL CURVE
Lesson Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:

 Recall the concept of percentile

 Find the z – scores when probabilities are given;
 Locate percentiles under the normal curve.
 Getting Ready!!!

Which of the following expressions are familiar to you?

‘First honor’
‘Top five’
‘ a score of 98%’
There are three important things to remember when we are given probabilities
and we want to know their corresponding z – scores.

First, a probability value corresponds to an area under the normal curve.

Second, in the table of Areas under the normal curve, the numbers in the
extreme left and across the top are z – scores, which are the distances along the
horizontal scale.
Third, the z – scores to the left of the mean are negative values.
Example:

What is the corresponding z – score when corresponding areas ( or probabilities) are given
using standard normal curve?

1) 0.3749 1.15 Area between z and mean

2) 0.1056 1.25 Area beyond z
3) 0.4608 1.76 Area between z and mean
4) 0.0885 1.35 Area beyond z
5) 0.4602 0.1 Area beyond z
PERCENTIL
E
A measure of relative standing.
It is a descriptive measure of the relationship of a measurement
to the rest of the data.
For any set of measurements (arranged in ascending or
descending order), a percentile (or centile) is a point in the
distribution such that a given number of cases is below it
In a test in Algebra, you got a score of 82 and you want to know how you
fared in comparison with your classmates. If your teacher tells you that you
scored at the 90th percentile,
……………………………………………………………………………………………..

it means that 90% of the grades were lower that yours and
10% were higher. If the relative frequency histogram were
used to show the scores, the 90th percentile would be
located at a point such that 90% of the total area under the
relative frequency histogram lies below the 90 th percentile
and 10% lies above
Example:
Find the 95th percentile of a normal curve.
Analysis: by the definition of this means locating an area before ( or below) the point. We
want to know what the z – value is at this point.
Step 1. Draw the appropriate normal curve.
Step 2. Express the given percentage as probability. ( 95% is the same as 0.9500)
Step 3. Split 0.9500 into 0.5000 and 0.4500. ( 0.9500 = 0.5000 + 0.4500)
Step 4. shade 0.5000 of the sketch of the normal curve in step 1.
Step 5. Refer to the table of areas under the normal curve. Locate the area 0.4500 in the body of
the table. ( This area is not found in the table.
It is between the values of 0.4495 and 0.4505).
Step 6. Find the z values that corresponds to 0.4495 and 0.4505.
0. 4505 z = 1.65 and 0.4495 z = 1.64
Step 7. Find the average of the two z – values. z = 1.645
Step 8. Locate z = 1.645 under the curve in step 1 and make a statement.
The 95th percentile is z = 1.645.
Step 9. Draw a line through under the curve in step 1.
Step 10. Shade the region to the left of z = 1.645
Step 11. Describe the shaded region. The shaded region is 95% of the
distribution.
Group Activity:
Find each of the following percentile points under the normal curve.
Complete your procedures.
Look Back and Reflect!

Is the normal curve a versatile mathematical concept? Why do you think

so? Write your thoughts in a one whole yellow paper.