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Original poster

CAT results - what do they actually mean?!

28 replies

EcoLady · 09/11/2012 09:59

Letter home with y7 DD's CAT results. It gives her numbers and the average of her year group ... but nothing else about what they actually mean.

Have tried googling but have only come across techy equations that need other data to go in them (ABCD?). Does anyone know of anywhere that explains it all in simple terms please?

Thanks

OP posts:
Ouluckyduck · 09/11/2012 10:59

The maximum you can get is 141.

Original poster
EcoLady · 09/11/2012 10:54

Thank you eatyourveg. Is there any way of finding an example curve to see how long the tails are? The average given for her year is 104 (which seems about right). Her scores are above that but I can't tell whether they are above by a little or a lot without knowing what the range is.

I will hunt for a link that predicts grades - hadn't thought of trying that route.

Thanks!

OP posts:
eatyourveg · 09/11/2012 10:48

Its a bell curve thing where 100 is the score most people would get. Usually done in non verbal reasoning, verbal reasoning and quantative (ie maths) so you should have 3 numbers. Having her year group scores means you can tell where she sits in the cohort.

At our primary school 118+ denoted you were suitable for the 11+ exam. Secondary schools usually use them for setting purposes. My dc had them in Y5 then again in years 7 8 and 9 although they say the scores don't usually change significantly. (ds1's score did change almost 10 points between yr 7 and 8, the dip being in Y7 and reverting back in Y8 to almost exactly the same as it was in Y5) They put it down to the fact the Y7 one was done in the first week of starting at a new school.

The scores can be used to predict how many A - C grades you are likely to get and somewhere online there is a table with the scores on and the number of A - C it equates to. No idea where but maybe someone else will come along with a link. I'll dig it out if no-one else does