>This doesn't account for absolute ties (same scores in all subjects).
>
The only way to do that is to work with a group by

This is what I had - but works only on ties with the total score -

create cursor test ;
	(	Student	I, ;
		English	I, ;
		Maths	I, ;
		Science	I, ;
		Total	I, ;
		Rank	I ;
	)
	
	insert into test values(5, 0,0,0, 489, 0)
	insert into test values(4, 0,0,0, 492, 0)
	insert into test values(3, 0,0,0, 391, 0)
	insert into test values(2, 0,0,0, 391, 0)
	insert into test values(1, 0,0,0, 389, 0)
	
	select	cast(0 as I)	as RankTmp,;
			Total ;
		from test ;
		into cursor tmp ReadWrite ;
		group by 1, 2 ;
		order by 1 desc, 2 desc	
	
	repl Ranktmp with recno() all in tmp
	
	update test ;
		set Rank = tmp.RankTmp ;
			from tmp ;
			where (test.Total == tmp.Total )
	
	selec * from Test order by Rank