SOLUTION: I recently scored 86% on a midterm exam! If the mean on the exam was 79% with a standard deviation of 6 points, I scored better than how many people taking this exam?

We want to know what percentage of the bell-shaped 
normal curve is shaded.


Look up 1.17 in a normal table and 

1.  if your table reads from the middle, you get 0.3413 and you 
add .5000 and get 0.8413, which is 84.13% or about 84%.

2.  if your table reads from the far left, you get 0.8413.

You scored better than 84% of the people in the class.

To know how many people that is, you'd have to know how many
people there were in the class.  You were not given that
information, so you can't find it.  So all you can say is
that you scored better than 84% of the people in the class.

Edwin