Statistics and

Probability
Percentile & t-
Distribution
After going through this module, you are expected to:
1. Illustrate the t-distribution
2. Identify the percentile using the t-table
 Lesson
Percentile and
1 the T-
Distribution
Percentiles have been discussed on your Grade 10 and their uses. These were
also discussed that percentiles are identifier of a student’s performance in
comparison to the performance of the whole class.

In this lesson, you will explore and understand the student’s t-distribution
and identify the percentiles using the t-tables.

Find 5 words on the puzzle below. For each word you find, make a brief definition
or expectation about the word.

P E R C E N T I L E A S C E R T T G Y D
D S F F C B D S G H J K L F C B B L E E
C D V R R H I C M N O D R R R H B Y J G
F C B G H T S V D S E R T G H T N J U R
R R H T K Y T T A B L E F T K Y B Y J E
G H T G J J R J J B Y J G G J J G H J E
T K Y H U K I U K N J U V H U K L U E O
G J J B Y A B J J B Y J V S D F G H J F
H U K N J S U E F G H J K Q S A T F B F
K Y Q M K D T V A L U E Q C V Y N M L R
I T A R L F I Q W E R T Y U I O O O J E
O L E V E L O F S I G N I F I C A N C E
R W D A L B N F R F K Y H U K E R N F D
T F E J J B Y C E G J J B Y A D T Y R O
L Q W U K N J E E G U K N J S C W E R M
P W M L I M I T E D Y Q M K D F G H J Y

1. Using the words that you have found, what are the things that come into
your mind?

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 2. What are the possible things or applications of these words in statistics?

3. Recalling your topic in normal distribution, how will it be related to the

normal curve?

The answer in this question requires an understanding of t-distribution.

What is It

The t-distribution (also called Student’s t-distribution) is a family

of distributions that look almost identical to the normal distribution curve, only a
bit shorter and stouter. The t-distribution is used instead of the normal
distribution when you have small samples. The larger the sample size, the more the
t distribution looks like the normal distribution. In fact, for sample sizes larger
than 20 (e.g. more degrees of freedom), the distribution is almost exactly like the
normal distribution.
The t-distribution is similar to a normal distribution. It has a
precise mathematical definition. Instead of diving into complex math, let’s look at
the useful properties of the t-distribution and why it is important in analysis of
any set of statistical quantitative data.

 Like the normal distribution, the t-distribution has a smooth shape.

 Like the normal distribution, the t-distribution is symmetric. If you think about
folding it in half at the mean, each side will be the same.
 Like a standard normal distribution (or z-distribution), the t-distribution has a
mean of zero.
 The normal distribution assumes that the population standard deviation is known.
The t-distribution does not make this assumption.
 The t-distribution is defined by the degrees of freedom. These are related to the
sample size.
 The t-distribution is most useful for small sample sizes, when the population
standard deviation is not known, or both.
 As the sample size increases, the t-distribution becomes more similar to a normal
distribution.

Using the t-table, shown on the next page we can be able to identify the t value of a
certain data.
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 Let us be familiar first with the following words:
1. Degree of freedom - This refers to the maximum number of logically
independent values which vary in the data sample.

2. Percentile – This is a measure of position with data divided into 100 parts.

Below is the t-table which you can use to find the t-value

right tailed area ( α )

df/v 0.40 0.25 0.10 0.05 0.025 0.01 0.005 0.0025 0.0010 0.0005
1 0.325 1.000 3.078 6.314 12.706 31.821 63.657 127.321 318.309 636.619
2 0.289 0.816 1.886 2.920 4.303 6.965 9.925 14.089 22.327 31.599
3 0.277 0.765 1.638 2.353 3.182 4.541 5.841 7.453 10.215 12.924
4 0.271 0.741 1.533 2.132 2.776 3.747 4.604 5.598 7.173 8.610
5 0.267 0.727 1.476 2.015 2.571 3.365 4.032 4.773 5.893 6.869
6 0.265 0.718 1.440 1.943 2.447 3.143 3.707 4.317 5.208 5.959
7 0.263 0.711 1.415 1.895 2.365 2.998 3.499 4.029 4.785 5.408
8 0.262 0.706 1.397 1.860 2.306 2.896 3.355 3.833 4.501 5.041
9 0.261 0.703 1.383 1.833 2.262 2.821 3.250 3.690 4.297 4.781
10 0.260 0.700 1.372 1.812 2.228 2.764 3.169 3.581 4.144 4.587
11 0.260 0.697 1.363 1.796 2.201 2.718 3.106 3.497 4.025 4.437
12 0.259 0.695 1.356 1.782 2.179 2.681 3.055 3.428 3.930 4.318
13 0.259 0.694 1.350 1.771 2.160 2.650 3.012 3.372 3.852 4.221
14 0.258 0.692 1.345 1.761 2.145 2.624 2.977 3.326 3.787 4.140
15 0.258 0.691 1.341 1.753 2.131 2.602 2.947 3.286 3.733 4.073
16 0.258 0.690 1.337 1.746 2.120 2.583 2.921 3.252 3.686 4.015
17 0.257 0.689 1.333 1.740 2.110 2.567 2.898 3.222 3.646 3.965
18 0.257 0.688 1.330 1.734 2.101 2.552 2.878 3.197 3.610 3.922
19 0.257 0.688 1.328 1.729 2.093 2.539 2.861 3.174 3.579 3.883
20 0.257 0.687 1.325 1.725 2.086 2.528 2.845 3.153 3.552 3.850
21 0.257 0.686 1.323 1.721 2.080 2.518 2.831 3.135 3.527 3.819
22 0.256 0.686 1.321 1.717 2.074 2.508 2.819 3.119 3.505 3.792
23 0.256 0.685 1.319 1.714 2.069 2.500 2.807 3.104 3.485 3.768
24 0.256 0.685 1.318 1.711 2.064 2.492 2.797 3.091 3.467 3.745
25 0.256 0.684 1.316 1.708 2.060 2.485 2.787 3.078 3.450 3.725
26 0.256 0.684 1.315 1.706 2.056 2.479 2.779 3.067 3.435 3.707
27 0.256 0.684 1.314 1.703 2.052 2.473 2.771 3.057 3.421 3.690
28 0.256 0.683 1.313 1.701 2.048 2.467 2.763 3.047 3.408 3.674
29 0.256 0.683 1.311 1.699 2.045 2.462 2.756 3.038 3.396 3.659
30 0.256 0.683 1.310 1.697 2.042 2.457 2.750 3.030 3.385 3.646
40 0.255 0.681 1.303 1.684 2.021 2.423 2.704 2.971 3.307 3.551
60 0.254 0.679 1.296 1.671 2.000 2.390 2.660 2.915 3.232 3.460
120 0.254 0.677 1.289 1.658 1.980 2.358 2.617 2.860 3.160 3.373

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 Illustrative example:
1. Identify the t-value whose number of samples n = 7 and has an area (𝛼)
equal to 0.05.
2. Find the t-value whose degree of freedom is 20 and has 𝛼 = 0.01.
3. Identify the t-value of the following percentiles given the number of samples.
a. 95th percentile , N= 30
b. 90th percentile, N=20

Solution:
1. To identify the t-value, identify first the degree of freedom using the formula
df= n-1 where n is the sample size.
df = n-1
df = 7-1
df = 6

Locate the t-value on the t-table using the degree of freedom and the area (𝛼)

right tailed area ( α )

df/v 0.40 0.25 0.10 0.05 0.025 0.01 0.005 0.0025 0.0010 0.0005
1 0.325 1.000 3.078 6.314 12.706 31.821 63.657 127.321 318.309 636.619
2 0.289 0.816 1.886 2.920 4.303 6.965 9.925 14.089 22.327 31.599
3 0.277 0.765 1.638 2.353 3.182 4.541 5.841 7.453 10.215 12.924
4 0.271 0.741 1.533 2.132 2.776 3.747 4.604 5.598 7.173 8.610
5 0.267 0.727 1.476 2.015 2.571 3.365 4.032 4.773 5.893 6.869
6 0.265 0.718 1.440 1.943 2.447 3.143 3.707 4.317 5.208 5.959
7 0.263 0.711 1.415 1.895 2.365 2.998 3.499 4.029 4.785 5.408

Therefore, the t-value with sample size of 7 and has 𝛼 = 0.05 is 1.943.

2. Since the degree of freedom and 𝛼 are already given locate the t-value
on the t-table.

Therefore, the t-value is 2.528.

3. a. The 95th percentile is the number where 95% of the values lie below it
and 5% lie above it, so you want the right-tail area to be 0.05. Move across
the row, find the column for 0.05, and then locate the t-value using n=30 or
df = 29.

So therefore, the t-value of P95 with n= 30 is 1.699.

b. The 90th percentile is the number where 90% of the values lie below it
and 10% lie above it, so you want the right-tail area to be 0.01. Move across
the row, find the column for 0.05, and then locate the t-value using n=20 or
df = 19.
 Therefore, the t-value of 90th percentile with n= 20 is 1.328

What’s More

Complete the table below by identifying the degree of freedom, right-

tailed area and the t-value for each percentiles and the sample size.

Percentile n df Right t
tailed area

1. 60th percentile 2

2. 75th percentile 5
3. 25th percentile 15
4. 90th percentile 7
5. 95th percentile 20

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 What I Have Learned

With steps closer on closing this module, answer the following questions
with at most 3 sentences. Write your answer on a separate sheet of paper.

1. What are the characteristics of a t-distribution? (Give at least 3

characteristics).

2. Enumerate the steps on identifying the t-value using the number of samples
and the right tailed area.

3. How to identify the t-value of a certain percentile using the t-table?

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 What I Can Do

ACTIVITY 1:
Triple Matching Type: Match column A (the t-value) to Column b (the degree
of freedom) and then to column C (the percentile).

A B C
A. 1 a. 97.5th percentile
1. 0.277
B. 6 b. 90th percentile
2. 1.734
C. 18 c. 75th percentile
3. 1.000
D. 3 d. 95th percentile
4. 1.345
E. 14 e. 60th percentile
5. 2.447
ACTIVITY 2:
Rowena wants to test a randomly selected 20 students for her
study. Identify the t-value of the following percentiles.
1. 75th percentile
2. 5th percentile
3. 60th percentile
4. 40th percentile
5. 90th percentile

Assessment

A. Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the
chosen letter on a separate sheet of paper.

1. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of t-distribution?

A. Like the normal distribution, the t-distribution has a smooth shape.
B. Like the normal distribution, the t-distribution is symmetric. If you
think about folding it in half at the mean, each side will be the same.
C. Like a standard normal distribution (or z-distribution), the t-
distribution has a mean of one.
D. The normal distribution assumes that the population standard
deviation is known. The t-distribution does not make this assumption.

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 2. This refers to the measure of position with data divided into 100 parts.
A. Percentiles
B. Quartiles
C. Deciles
D. Median

3. This refers to the maximum number of logically independent values, which

vary in the data sample.
A. Level of significance
B. Percentiles
C. Degree of freedom
D. Probability

4. What is the right-tailed area if the confidence interval is 75%?

A. 0.05
B. 0.10
C. 0.005
D. 0.25

5. What will be the degree of freedom of the data whose sample size is 18?
A. 17
B. 18
C. 19
D. 20

For number 6 to 8, use the given data below to answer the following questions.

There are 9 students who will be taking up the test, the researcher sets the level of
significance to 0.05. The following are the scores of the nine students:

23, 25, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 40, 45

6. What will be the t-value of the given problem?

A. 1.729
B. 1.456
C. 1.612
D. 1.551

7. What will be the value of 25th percentile?

A. 25
B. 26
C. 27
D. 28

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 8. Using the t-table, give the t-value of 95th percentile?
A. 1.729
B. 1.456
C. 1.612
D. 1.551

9. What will be the degree of freedom whose t-value is 0.689?

A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4

10.Find the t-value of 2.5th percentile using the t-table with a degree of freedom
of 6.
A. 2.570
B. 4.030
C. -2.570
D. -4.030

II. For numbers 11-15, fill out the table below.

Percentile n t
40th percentile 2
75th percentile 10
90th percentile 15
95th percentile 20
97.5th percentile 25