What does 70% percentile mean?

A lot of students get confused when they see something like:
"You got 70 percentile."
So what does that actually mean?

Simple answer:
You performed better than 70% of students who appeared.

Example:
If 1,00,000 students appeared, and you’re at 70 percentile:
You scored better than 70,000 students.

But important:

• It doesn’t mean you got 70% marks.
• It means your position is better than 70% of the crowd.

Where it matters:

• In competitive exams, cutoffs for NITs, IITs, IIITs, or private universities are often based on percentile.
• Sometimes a 70 percentile may not qualify you for top-tier colleges, but could still open up options depending on category, branch, or institute.

Rule of thumb:

• 70 percentile = slightly above average.
• Top NITs usually require 95+ percentile.
• Private colleges may accept students in 60-80 percentile ranges.