Newbie MTT question...

[djhoneybear]

I've just started playing some of the cheaper MTT tournaments on-line. I've done reasonably well so far, placing in the money twice and getting to the finals table once in 8 tries. All tournaments had starting fields between 200 and 250.

My question is how does a tournament player measure himself? What percentage of times does a good MTT player finish in the money, at the finals table, top three etc.? I feel like I've played pretty consistently, learned a ton (especially about weak kickers), ocassionally got sucked out on and occassionally caught a card. So far I have always beat 2/3s to 3/4s of the field. Are my results less about where I finish and more about how I play the hands I was involved in? How many MTTs should I tackle before I can assess my results?

Thanks for any insight.