When I die, how much of the experience I have gained is made into orbs?

Question

I died, but very near my spawn point. When I came back to the point where I'd died (I fell to my death) there was my stuff spread around, as well as loads of experience orbs! I don't know how much I had before I died, so is the amount I just picked up:

• The exact amount I had before I died?
• Some random/fixed portion of that amount?
• Fixed?

Update

Apparently this behaviour has changed in 1.9PR, so I have marked this question unanswered for now.

Answer

It appears the amount of experience lost upon dying is approximately the same as the amount of orbs that gets dropped.

Upon the player's death, a number of Experience Orbs are dropped at the location of death. … The number of orbs that are reclaimed is about the same number as the amount lost. - MC Wiki

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Upon testing it myself, it seems the experience dropped isn't equal to the experience you had before you died. After running three tests, I usually got about 1/2 of the experience I had before I died.

This image contains three tests: the experience meter before is on top and the experience bar after is below. Also, in the third test, I had an entire bar of experience plus what is shown.

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