I take it that you want the names of the students along with their marks
to figure in the list. There are a couple options.
A formula sytem:
Let A5:B25 house the following sample, including the headers Student and
Mark...
{"Student","Mark";
"dawn",35;
"damon",23;
"bob",25;
"chris",22;
"christine",21;
"ian",32;
"john",35;
"anitha",35;
"brian",33;
"laurent",29;
"daniel",27;
"dennis",32;
"tom",26;
"thomas",29;
"martin",31;
"linda",30;
"olga",35;
"dilip",31;
"mete",25;
"bilge",31}
C6, copy down:
=RANK(B6,$B$6:$B$25)+COUNTIF(B6:$B$6,B6)-1
This ranks the marks.
D5:
="Top "&SUM(E3:E4)&" Students"
D6, copy to E6 then down:
=IF(ROW()-ROW(D$6)+1<=$E$3+$E$4,INDEX(A$6:A$25,MATCH(ROW()-ROW($D$6)+1,$C$6:$C$25,0)),"")
Parameters, given & calculated
E1:
=COUNT(B6:B26)
Counts the available marks.
E2: 5%
E3:
=ROUNDUP(E1*E2,0)
Determines N, taking 5% of the available marks.
E4:
=MAX(IF(INDEX(B6:B20,MATCH(E3,C6:C20,0))=B6:B20,C6:C20))-E3
which must be confirmed with control+shift+enter instead of the usual enter.
The latter formula determines the ties of the Nth value calculated in E3.
The area in D:E from row 6 downwards will contain the desired list of
Top 5% of the students along with their marks.
Other options: Advanced Filter with a computed criteria, AutoFilter, and
Pivot tables.