Our school suggests 120-125 CAT score necessary to be of standard to progress to upper school - is this quite high?

[Michaelahpurple]

It sounds like quite a high indicative threshold , but I don't have much sense of what is "normal" at selective schools.

Does anyone have a sense of this?

Today is the day that you worried about yesterday. Tomorrow will look after itself.

The average CAT score used in state secondary schools is 100, so a CAT score 120 is the equivalent of top set at your local state comprehensive. Private school parents are often very sucessful, hard working and intelligent. Intelligence is partly genetic and partly enviromental. Private school children often have interested parents who read to them and give them (an intellectually) childhood. Private school parents don't tend to chain smoke, watch endless soaps and only talk in grunts at their children.

CATs scores are combination of eduation and intelligence. A junior school that is attached to a private secondary school will not want to have lots of their kids fail the entrance exam to the upper school. It would simply be too embrassing.

It sounds high.... Didn't someone once work out given the distribution of IQ and numbers attending Oxbridge that there must be a significant proportion there with IQs of 115?

OP is yours a London school?

Yes it is. I guess was meant to be helpful, but as with much to do with planning these things, it all seems to lead to more questions!

So if they don't have that CAT score are they meant to go to another school?

Adjusted scores (allowing for age by month) are roughly 100 = average.

125 = very intelligent

They're selecting the top 5 or so percent of the population. So yes, it's quite high.

www.123test.com/interpretation-of-an-iq-score/

They're selecting the top 5 or so percent of the population

If they start at 120 they are actually selecting roughly the top 10% of the population. To get the top 5% they would be looking at 125+.

Do they actually select via cat score or their own test? Not much private school competition round here so they're mostly full of footballers kids and the local self employed building trade kids. They make a big deal out of the entrance exam but it cant be that hard. I guess london is different. Even so, it must be hard to find enough people to fill the spaces if choosing the top 5% of the 8% who privately educate

100 is average - they are taking average and above, not below average.

They don't use it as a direct filter although I think they sometimes crop up in reports - more used as flag of those who might not make it, or, more positively, may not be suited to ye school which I guess is the important interpretation. In which case beat yo know early I suppose

'Private school parents are often very sucessful, hard working and successful. Private school children often have interested parents who read to them and give them (an intellectually) childhood. Private school parents don't tend to chain smoke, watch endless soaps and only talk in grunts at their children.'

really tired

Rather bizarre points, replace state school for private school all through your speil and all points would be equally true. As over 90% of children are not in private education I think you'll find many of its pupils are not the spawn of Waynetta.

so about 8% of children may get over 120 in (say Maths) but many fewer will get over 120 in all three tests

Drwitch is more or less right, from information published by GL, who design the tests, for individual elements of the test the mean is 100, sd 15, so a score of 120 is in the top 9%. The standard deviation for the mean score from the tests is lower (12.9), which would make a mean score of 120 more like top 6%. That said, the scores can only be interpreted like this where DC are coming to the test with no prior practice. If a DC has been practicing a lot of VR and NVR in preparation for the 11+, then they are likely to achieve a higher score than is truly representative of their underlying ability.

To answer OP's question, I think a lot of the top selective schools (the likes of City of London Girls and Boys, Habs, JAGS, LEH, GHS, LU, etc etc) do aim for broadly the top 5% to 10% ability wise, so a CAT score of about 120 for a DC that has not had much, if any, VR and NVR practice sounds about right. 125 does sound pretty high, and more likely to be for the very top schools (Westminster, SPGS etc), or alternatively to allow for the impact of tutoring for 11+.

"'Private school parents are often very sucessful, hard working and successful. Private school children often have interested parents who read to them and give them (an intellectually) childhood. Private school parents don't tend to chain smoke, watch endless soaps and only talk in grunts at their children"

True. But neither do most state school parents. Sorry if this is a shock to you............

ReallyTired, is that what you think of us state school parents?

I didn't read ReallyTired post this way. More that, by default, parents who are sending their dcs to a private school will be doing all that, which then leads to higher CAT scores.
But not that (some/most) parents who send their dcs to state school aren't doing it. Or that they are all 'not talking' to their dcs.

Judging by a recent conversation I was having, needing such a score sounds like the kind of thing Habs would say!

DS' prep school says they need to be getting CAT scores of 120+ to get a place at any of the senior schools that expect a 65% CE score (which is most places these days). Higher for Westminster, SPS, KCS etc...).

Competition for places in London is fierce so aiming to select the top 10% or so is feasible.

I also head the same from a tutor that friends were using for 11+. She said top girl schools (St.Paul's, North London Collegiate, City, etc) pick among girls with 125+ scores.

Michaelahpurple - I have heard of this CAT4 scores recently as my daughter is sitting 11+ and yes we were also told 125+ is expected for the top ones but again, they are tested in all four areas, Maths, English, VR and NVR I do believe. It's an online test as well which is what I gather most schools are using as pre-tests or to filter the scholarship students.
I would be very interested to hear if you have any more info on this - in a way, I like this type of testing if the children in question haven't been grilled or prepared for the 11+ or CE like some of the private prep children.

I'm vary wary of these sort of tests myself. DC1 aced his way into a top selective London prep and is apparently 'gifted' whilst DC2 failed to get in to any selectives and has extra help for most things at school. Yet they scored within a few points of each other on the CAT test.

eeyore I'm sceptical too. But could it be that DC2 was just disadvantaged by taking the tests a few years later when competition had become more fierce?

I've been told that CAT scores of 100 equate to 50% CE, CAT 110 to 55, 120 to 60 etc.

Not sure how true that is or if it's just a conveneint thing to think because the numbers fit?

In either case, I'm sure a lot more depends on which school is marking.

I'm not sure it can be equated like that just because what is being tested is so different. Isn't CAT supposed to assess untaught potential whereas CE is taught knowledge? DD's CAT score is 132 but she'd struggle to get 50% in CE (and yes we have the school trying to work out why her potential isn't translating to actual knowledge).

Glad to hear school is looking into it eeyore. That was my first thought

Really interesting points re CE equivalence - thanks for all the responses.