What is the meaning of 'many of the bottom third'? Thank you. The city state streams pupils rigorously and is unashamedly elitist: one school claims to send more students to Ivy League universities than any other secondary school in the world. But such a system also produces losers—and many of the bottom third who do not make it to university come to ITE. I don't understand the last sentence "many of the bottom third", especially the"third".