CAT scores help

[Shirleycantbe]

Hi

My dd is in Yr 5 and I have just received her CAT scores as follows:

Verbal - 141
Quantitative - 128
Non-Verbal - 140
Spatial - 127

Mean score - 134

Can anyone help interpret these in terms of percentiles?

I have googled but cant find anything very helpful online.

Thanks!

That mean score is at 99th percentile and the verbal and non-verbal are virtually at test ceiling. Very impressive results. Your DD would be scholarship material.

Isn't it something like
average (mean) child is 100
So 50% are up to 99.9999
Then between 100 and 115 is the next 33%. i.e. 115 means child is 83rd centile, with 17% better.
Child at 130 is 95th centile.

So your DD is basically just below top 5% for 2 and much higher than that for the others.

Most CAT scores are age standardised vs a cohort. My DS's CAT scores were standardised vs a National cohort, but other schools vary. Typically, the mean is 100 and most children will fall 1 standard deviation either side. In short, the vast majority of people (68%) will fall between 85 and 115. Anything above 115 is deemed "above average", and anything above 130 is "exceptional".

So in your case, your DD is in the 99th percentile (top 1%) for Verbal and Non - Verbal and in the Top 15% for the rest.

Lastly, a health warning, CAT scores are a point in time and have a number of flaws...be happy her scores are good, but I would advise against inferring too much from them.

They will be done at various stages throughout your child's school life and there needs to be a consistency for them to have any value. However if your child consistently has scores like those then she has a bright academic future ahead of her (provided she applies herself).

Be proud!

Iirc 141 is maximum. Between 80 and 120 is considered average.

Not to be pedantic, but isn't it:
1sd from the mean = 2/3rd (i.e 66 2/3%)
2sd = 95%
3sd = 99.7%

But then you have to split each of the remainders into 2 because its symmetric. so, half of a third below 1sd and half of a third (i.e. a sixth above 1 standard deviation)?

That's what i was basing my figures on as I'd read somewhere that 115 is usually 1sd, 130 is 2. I can't remember what is 3, but its not 145.

The CATS that I have come across have 100 as the mean score. 1 SD either side will be 15 (remember this is standardised not raw scores) and 68% of the population will be between 85 and 115. Thereafter, 14% will be between 70-85 and 14% will be between 115 and 130.

Finally, 2% will be between 0-70 and 2% will be between 130 -141

Thats might read as confusing, so let me list it in order

0-70 = 2% of cohort

70 - 85 = 14% of cohort
85 - 100 (mean) = 34% of cohort
100 - 115 = 34% of cohort
115 - 130 = 14% of cohort - ABOVE AVERAGE
130 - 141 = 2% of cohort - EXCEPTIONAL

what i don't get is that its based on a normal distribution, isn't it? So where do the non-standard % come from? The ones I gave were the ones I learned when I did stats at university (light years ago and I 've forgotten tons so am very willing to get an explanation that makes the 68% correct.)