CAT scores!

[stillcluelessmum]

I wondered if there are any experts here who can explain what these mean! DS has been placed in top English sets for maths, English and science at his new (comprehensive) school. He did very well in his Y6 SATS and, as expected, scored v. highly in maths which he has always been very good at; he has never liked or excelled at writing although his comprehension is good - always been the type of boy who writes the smallest amount he thinks he can get away with! School has now posted his CAT scores on the parent portal (no context or explanation) and I'm a little surprised at the range of scores and by the fact that his quantitative test scores was by far his lowest. I'm hoping someone can help me to interpret these - is it common to have such a range of results and for children to have CAT results that don't really fit with primary assessment/SATS/where we thought his strengths lie ? I know they measure very different things but I suppose I was expecting some correlation.The actual scores are: non-verbal SAS - 130, verbal SAS, 124, quantitative 103, mean 120. Also, what is the 'mean' as it isn't the mean average of the first three scores? Does any of it really matter for GCSE and above ? Many thanks to anyone that can help.

[quietlycrazy]

For what it's worth, for my DD the CATS tests were utterly useless, and if we had made any decisions based on them it would have been a huge mistake. I suspect they reflect to one type of ability. In DD's case, her scores were laughably low, including in verbal. She's a lovely writer with a wide vocabulary. Got full marks at GCSE for one of her Eng Lit essays, and high marks for all the others, and 7s (A* equivalent) at IB Higher Level for History and English. I'm not trying to boast (honest!), but just to say that this was a kid who scored well below par on the CATS verbal section (and even worse on the other elements).

[Ineverpromisedyouarosegarden]

I know a little but not much. so until someone more knowledgeable posts ...SAS is standardised age score so non verbal is working things out from what you see eg. diagrams, pictures etc

verbal is obviously listening/ speaking

average is 80-120 with above 110 considered high average. Above 120 is considered very very good.

I suspect the mean is the mean for either the group or the year.

Long story short your child is well capable of verbal good GCSE's.

[Ineverpromisedyouarosegarden]

No the mean isn't for the cohort or year sorry was wrong about that. Don't know what it is though.

[Ineverpromisedyouarosegarden]

this explains it better

[TeenAndTween]

DD's school used to put up a chart of CAT score v GCSE grades.

It showed a rough correlation - higher y7 CAT scores roughly meant higher y11 GCSE results.

But there were always people with high CATs and low GCSEs, and lower CATS but good GCSEs. The school emphasised this was due to pupil attitude. My DD had low CATs (under 100 for each area), but passed all her GCSEs well because she worked hard.

Your DS has good CATs, so should be capable of good GCSEs, provided he puts the work in.