PERCENTILE

There is no universally accepted definition of a percentile. Using the 65th

percentile as an example, the 65th percentile can be defined as the lowest score that is
greater than 65% of the scores. This is the way we defined it above and we will call this
"Definition 1". The 65th percentile can also be defined as the smallest score that is
greater than or equal to 65% of the scores. This we will call "Definition 2".
Unfortunately, these two definitions can lead to dramatically different results, especially
when there is relatively little data. Moreover, neither of these definitions is explicit about
how to handle rounding. For instance, what score is required to be higher than 65% of the
scores when the total number of scores is 50? This is tricky because 65% of 50 is 32.5.
How do we find the lowest number that is higher than 32.5% of the scores? A third way
to compute percentiles (presented below), is a weighted average of the percentiles
computed according to the first two definitions. This third definition handles rounding
more gracefully than the other two and has the advantage that it allows the median to be
defined conveniently as the 50th percentile.

DECILE

QUARTILE
Quartile is a percentile measure that divides the total of 100% into four equal parts: 25%,
50%, 75% and 100%. A particular quartile is the border between two neighboring
quarters of the distribution.

Q1 (quartile 1) separates the bottom 25% of the ranked data (Data is ranked when it is
arranged in order.) from the top 75%. Q2 (quartile 2) is the mean or average. Q3 (quartile
3) separates the top 25% of the ranked data from the bottom 75%. More precisely, at
least 25 % of the data will be less than or equal to Q1 and at least 75% will be greater than
or equal Q1. At least 75% of the data will be less than or equal to Q3 while at least 25%
of the data will be greater than or equal to Q3.
Interquartile range is the distance between the first and third quartiles. It is
sometimes called the H-spread and is a stable measure of disbursement. It is obtained by
evaluating Q3– Q1.
 Semi-interquartile range is one-half the difference between the first and third
quartiles. It is half the distance needed to cover half the scores. The semi-interquartile
range is affected very little by extreme scores. This makes it a good measure of spread

for skewed distributions. It is obtained by evaluating .

The midquartile range is the numerical value midway between the first and third
quartile. It is one-half the sum of the first and third quartiles. It is obtained by evaluating

. (The median, midrange and midquartile are not always the same value,
although they may be.)

REFERENCE:
http://hotmath.com/hotmath_help/topics/quartiles.html