The top 0.1% are no longer more competent than they were 10 years ago. Take math. About 1% of high schoolers participate in the American Mathematics Contest, and about 10% of those score >100. Ten years ago, they had a strict “top 5% or those scoring above 100 advance to the next round” rule. Five years ago, the contest got much harder very quickly (the class of 2022 was exceptionally good, and the contest writers probably anticipated that by seeing MATHCOUNTS results), and where the cutoff had been ~105, it dropped down to ~84. Note that I’m talking about the AMC 12 here, and participation had declined at this point, so they took the top 10% instead of the top 5% to keep the same number of contestants in the next round (the AIME). The most recent contests are easier than they were five years ago, but the cutoff has remained in the 80s.
The top 0.1% are no longer more competent than they were 10 years ago. Take math. About 1% of high schoolers participate in the American Mathematics Contest, and about 10% of those score >100. Ten years ago, they had a strict “top 5% or those scoring above 100 advance to the next round” rule. Five years ago, the contest got much harder very quickly (the class of 2022 was exceptionally good, and the contest writers probably anticipated that by seeing MATHCOUNTS results), and where the cutoff had been ~105, it dropped down to ~84. Note that I’m talking about the AMC 12 here, and participation had declined at this point, so they took the top 10% instead of the top 5% to keep the same number of contestants in the next round (the AIME). The most recent contests are easier than they were five years ago, but the cutoff has remained in the 80s.