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Original poster

Y7 CATs: Ignorance is bliss?

41 replies

PiqueABoo · 08/10/2014 18:06

DD's school told the parents what their children scored in the CATs.

I've never wanted to get her IQ tested or anything like that, because at some level I didn't want to run the risk of being disappointed by the results and/or being trapped i.e. feeling compelled to Do Something[tm] as a consequence.

This is different from SATs somehow and I'm growing to hate knowing: it's like we've taken an unpredictable, fluttering butterfly and pinned it firmly to a board so everyone knows exactly where it is for eternity.

Is this a weird reaction? If not do you get over it by-and-by?

[I do know what they do and don't tell you, the reliability and so on but that doesn't help.]

OP posts:
cathyandclaire · 10/10/2014 07:15

Dd1 is the same with these IQ type tests, she always overthinks things. If there was a picture of three birds and a mouse and she had to choose the odd one out, she'd go for bird 2 because it isn't a primary colour! The mouse is too obvious.
Her predicted grades a couple of years ago (YELLIS test) were quite low and she was devastated. With time they seem to integrate actual achieved marks into the predictions and they moved up every significantly and were accurate by the time she got to GCSEs, she got 10A* which was way above the early scores suggested.
We were told that it was very possible to get aberrant low scores.

TranquilityofSolitude · 10/10/2014 07:03

We weren't told CAT scores until we went to choose options for DD and discovered that she couldn't do GCSEs in science or languages because her score was too low. She'd come to the evening wanting to be a doctor! We fought this with the school and she's now in Yr11 and on track for good results in triple science and French. There's a 40 point gap between my DDs according to the tests. I can't see this myself and feel sure that if they were accurate I'd be able to detect a difference.

AnonyMust · 10/10/2014 06:46

Does a CATs score indicate which set a child will be taught in?

Coolas · 10/10/2014 06:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
PiqueABoo · 10/10/2014 00:14

I'm not disappointed or worried about DD's scores, it is just that irrational feeling that possibilities have narrowed.

Significant margins of error are typical for everything, but it just hadn't crossed my mind that we might get such serious CAT/IQ-score defiant cases, so those stories were interesting.

OP posts:
Dragonlette · 09/10/2014 23:54

We don't give out CAT scores unless a parent particularly asks, and most of them don't. Dd1's school has never told me her CAT score, and I'm not in the slightest bit interested, she's doing well and is ambitious, that's enough for me. I think most parents have a pretty good idea of how academic their child is, and that can obviously change as they mature. Don't let a CAT score define your child.

Coolas · 09/10/2014 23:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

duhgldiuhfdsli · 09/10/2014 22:42

"they gave each parent a short report on their DC's preferred learning and studying style"

They should do something with more grounding in reality, like prescribing them homeopathic learning medicine based on their star sign, or selecting their GCSEs based on the bumps on their head.

Daltec · 09/10/2014 22:37

My DCs school won't give out the results which is probably a good thing. If we were offered them, I couldn't resist knowing, but then I'd worry myself stupid if they were bad. Some great stories here though and very encouraging to know that those with a low IQ or not particularly great exam passes can still be very successful further down the line.

afterthought · 09/10/2014 22:16

The brightest girl in my tutor group had the lowest CATs score - her score reflected someone with quite serious learning difficulties. I'm assuming that in her very conscientious manner she spent so long checking her answers she didn't finish the test. I was going to ask her about it but I didn't want to make an issue out of something that really doesn't matter.

Milliways · 09/10/2014 22:03

My DD was like Luxaroma's DH. She didn't get into a Grammar school, and her Yr7 CATS gave her a predicted 6 GCSE's at A-C. She got 11 A*s and also a great degree from Cambridge. She still could not pass the 11+ though.

YouAreMyRain · 09/10/2014 07:33

Don't take it seriously! As PPs have said, It's just a measure of how she did on a particular test.

TheFirstOfHerName · 09/10/2014 07:26

The CAT score does not define your child. All it measures is how she happened to score on that particular day in that particular type of test. There are many other aspects to intelligence that are not measured by that sort of test, and it is not an IQ test. Try your best to ignore the result, and move on.

Luxaroma · 09/10/2014 07:22

Can I just say my Dh gets dreadful scores in iq tests - we're talking in the 90's. He graduated from Cambridge with a 2-1 and is very successful at his career but is still quite shit at intelligence tests, he practices a bit before interviews but they are never glowing.

One of his colleagues is incredibly bright, very high IQ but has limited social skills, he's incapable of dealing with people who he perceives to be of lower intelligence to himself in a tactful way, he can see this is career limiting but he is unable to modify his behaviour.

My dsis is in Mensa but she did quite poorly at school, she managed to get 2Bs and 3Cs in her GCSEs, she has a great career despite getting quite low school results.

A high result doesn't make you successful and a low result doesn't prevent you.

The school sent us a copy of their Cats results and they were filed away and never mentioned again.

Original poster
PiqueABoo · 08/10/2014 22:57

"they gave each parent a short report on their DC's preferred learning and studying style"

That sounds fun. Was it hits or misses?

OP posts:
minesawine · 08/10/2014 18:50

It is not weird at all. My DD's school only tells you if you ask and I have decided not to. They use the CAT's to re-set the children as well after half term. I have therefore decided to wait and see whether she goes up (fingers crossed) or down in her subjects and deal with any additional support she needs she may have. I dont need to know what her CAT score is.

What they did do which I quite liked was, based on their CAT scores, they gave each parent a short report on their DC's preferred learning and studying style. It was really interesting.