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On a standardized test, the mean score is 70 and the standard deviation is 10. If Rita Keane scored 90 on this test, her score is at the

(1) 84th percentile
(2) 90th percentile
(3) 95th percentile
(4) 97.5 percentile

User Jakov
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

Rita Keane's score, being 2 standard deviations above the mean, places her at the 97.5th percentile. This position indicates that her score surpasses approximately 97.5% of the test taker scores on the standardized test.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is asking to identify at which percentile Rita Keane's score falls on a standardized test with a mean score of 70 and a standard deviation of 10. To find the percentile, we first need to calculate Rita's z-score, which is done by subtracting the mean from Rita's score and dividing by the standard deviation:

Z = (Rita's Score - Mean) / Standard Deviation

= (90 - 70) / 10

= 20 / 10

= 2

Rita has a z-score of 2. This z-score tells us how many standard deviations Rita's score is from the mean. In a standard normal distribution, a z-score of 2 corresponds to approximately the 97.5th percentile. This means that Rita's score is higher than approximately 97.5% of the test takers.

Interpreting Percentiles

Percentile rankings are a way to compare scores to a larger population, indicating the percentage of scores that a given score betters. Given Rita's z-score, she is at the 97.5th percentile, so option (4) is correct.

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User John Noonan
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