Definition
A sten score indicates an individual's approximate position (as a range of values) with respect to the population of values and, therefore, to other people in that population. The individual sten scores are defined by reference to a standard normal distribution. Unlike stanine scores, which have a midpoint of five, sten scores have no midpoint (the midpoint is the value 5.5). Like stanines, individual sten scores are demarcated by half standard deviations. Thus, a sten score of 5 includes all standard scores from -.5 to zero and is centered at -0.25 and a sten score of 4 includes all standard scores from -1.0 to -0.5 and is centered at -0.75. A sten score of 1 includes all standard scores below -2.0. Sten scores of 6-10 "mirror" scores 5-1. The table below shows the standard scores that define stens and the percent of individuals drawn from a normal distribution that would receive sten score.
| Z-scores | < -2.0 | -2 to -1.5 | -1.5 to -1.0 | -1.0 to -.5 | -.5 to 0 | 0 to +.5 | +.5 to +1.0 | +1.0 to +1.5 | +1.5 to +2.0 | > +2.0 |
| Percent | 2.3% | 4.4% | 9.2% | 15.0% | 19.2% | 19.2% | 15.0% | 9.2% | 4.4% | 2.3% |
| Sten | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Sten scores (for the entire population of results) have a mean of 5.5 and a standard deviation of 2.
Read more about this topic: Sten Scores
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)
“The definition of good prose is proper words in their proper places; of good verse, the most proper words in their proper places. The propriety is in either case relative. The words in prose ought to express the intended meaning, and no more; if they attract attention to themselves, it is, in general, a fault.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“One definition of man is “an intelligence served by organs.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)