Standard & Normal Scores
Standard & Normal Scores
NORMAL DISTRIBUTION
Handout #8
Test Scores
• Suppose you (together with many other students) take
tests in three subjects. On each test, the range of
possible scores runs from 0 to 100 points. The table
below shows your score in each of the three subjects
– In which subject did you do best?
– In which subject did you do best relative to other students?
• The answer to the second question obviously depends
on the overall frequency distribution of score.
Test Scores (cont.)
• Indeed, the picture looks different when we look at your
scores relative to overall distribution of scores and, in
particular, to its summary statistics.
• Let’s compare each of your scores to the mean score in
each subject. Now what seems to be your strongest
subject?
Your Deviations from the Mean
• While you got the highest score in ENGL, this score was
actually slightly below (by 1 point) the mean.
– In fact, it is likely (but not certain) that you scored in the bottom
half of all students taking the test.
– On the other hand, you scored well above average in both of the
other subjects (10 points in Math and 15 in POLI).
• Note that the magnitudes that we have just referred to
here are your deviations from mean in each subject.
• Since your deviation from the mean is greatest with
respect to POLI, this may appear to be your strongest
subject. But this may not be the case.
Your Deviations from the Mean Compared
with Other Deviations from the Mean
• While you have a deviation from the mean in each
subject, so does every other student who took the test.
• Consider the distribution of POLI scores. Almost certainly
quite a few students scored close the mean, but probably
quite a few others scored well above the mean (like you)
and others well below.
– On the one hand, but if most students scored very close to the
mean (so the dispersion in test scores is small),
• your score of 72 would make you an outlier, scoring higher
than almost all other students.
– On the other hand, if many students scored well above the mean
(and — since we know that the sum of all deviations from the
mean must sum to zero — many other students scored well
below the mean, so the dispersion of test scores is large),
• your score of 72, while certainly good, would be less
outstanding.
Your Deviations Compared with Other
Deviations (cont.)
• Thus whether your score is outstanding or merely good
depends
– not just on your score compared with the mean score
– but also on your deviation from the mean compared with other
deviations from the mean, i.e., the dispersion of scores.
• Recall from Handout #7 that the standard measure of
dispersion — the standard deviation — itself is directly
based on the deviations from the mean.
• Recall also that the SD of scores (though precisely
defined as the square root of the average of all squared
deviations) is approximately the same as (though usually
somewhat greater than) the average of the absolute
deviations from the mean.
Your Deviations from the Mean Compared
with the Standard Deviation from the Mean
• And here is another useful rule: in a normal distribution, half the cases
have observed values that lie within about 2/3 of the SD of the mean,
i.e.,
– the first and third quartiles lie at just about 2/3 of a SD below and above the
mean respectively, so
– In a normal distribution, the interquartile range is equal to about 1.33 SDs.
If test scores are normally distributed, we know from the 68-95-99.7% and 50%
rules the percentile ranks associated with the following standard scores [and
SATs]:
ENGL -0.125 45
MATH +2.0
97.5
POLI +1.0 84
Most scores are “mediocre”
• Note that, in a normal distribution, most cases are
“packed” into a relatively narrow interval quite close to
the mean.
• Therefore, in this range of “mediocrity” (literally, in the
vicinity of the median), a small change in one’s score
can produce a big change one’s percentile rank.
• For example, if you get a score of 460 when you first
take the SAT and then get a score of 540 when you take
it a second time, you have made a nice but not
spectacular improvement (80 points), but it still jumps
you from the 33rd percentile to the 67th (i.e., it jumps
you over one-third of all SAT takers).
• But to jump above the remaining third of SAT takers still
above you (i.e., to the 99th percentile or better), your
score would have to go from 540 to 800 (260 points).
Complete Table of the Normal Distribution
• How do we know that an SAT score of 460 puts you at
the 33rd percentile (and likewise for other scores)?
– You can integrate the “Gaussian equation” for the normal curve
(see below) over the relevant range.
– You can look in a statistical table (or use an scientific
calculator).
– You can use a statistical applet such as is found on the course
webpage =>