After a ranked attempt, the result page shows a score, a rank and a percentile. These numbers are computed on the server from stored attempts — never sent by the browser — and they follow one fixed rule. Knowing the rule makes the leaderboard readable instead of mysterious.

What counts as a ranked attempt

Three conditions must all hold:

  1. The attempt was submitted (expired attempts are scored but never ranked).
  2. It is the candidate's first submitted attempt on that paper — retakes are scored for practice but do not take a new ranked slot.
  3. The candidate is a signed-in user; guest attempts stay private to the device.

The ranking rule

Ranked attempts are ordered by three keys, in this exact order:

  • Score, highest first.
  • Time taken, lowest first — among equal scores, the faster attempt wins.
  • Accuracy, highest first — among equal scores and equal times, the attempt with more correct answers and fewer wrong ones wins.

The result page and the leaderboard apply the same rule, so the rank you see on your result matches the position on the public board.

The percentile formula

Percentile answers a narrower question than rank: *what fraction of ranked attempts did you finish ahead of?* It is computed as:

percentile = (eligible attempts − your rank + 1) ÷ eligible attempts × 100, rounded to one decimal place.

So being 1st of 200 is the 100th percentile; being 50th of 200 is the 75.3rd percentile. Both rank and percentile are computed only when at least one other eligible attempt exists.

What these numbers are not

  • They are not official NTA results and not a national percentile — they describe your standing among ranked attempts on this platform only.
  • They are not permanent: as more students attempt the paper, the same score can sit at a different rank. That movement is information — it tells you how competitive the paper's field is.

Use the per-paper leaderboards to pick papers where the field is strong, and the previous-year library to find the next paper to attempt. The scoring rules themselves are documented on the marking scheme page.