Standardised score what does it really show and mean?

[lexcat]

Proud mother moment dd got 131 in her maths. From what the report says that a really good score but is that because my dd loves maths and has tested really well. Or is their more to it.

Her english and verbal reasoning were 105 but I know she didn't really enjoy those tests. Where as the maths she came home and told me all about and how she finished it really fast.

Anyone

131 puts her in the top few percent of achievement in maths. I'm not sure there's any more/less you can read into it than that, but well done to her!

If she's quite young then mind wandering etc. could reduce her other scores, but I think it's unlikely that her maths result is falsly high as the test is measuring what you can do (achievement). What I'm trying to say is I don't really agree with the idea of 'testing well', but it is possible to 'test badly'.

You shouldn't assume that all the scores should be the same if the same amount of effort/enthusiasm was applied to all subjects - some children do have more natural aptitude for some subjects than others, and it's quite possible that your dd's aptitude for maths is fuelling her enthusiasm for the subject rather than her enthusiasm resulting in a better ability.

However, it is a chicken & egg thing because if you enjoy a subject then you're more likely to pay attention in class & focus on it better and so reach a higher standard in that subject, which will reflect in the test results. Who can say which came first the enthusiasm or the achievement? But if they are feeding off each other in a kind of positive loop why worry?

Standardised score matches a raw score in a test against their age in years and months.
So a November birthday with a raw score of 35 will have a lower standardised score than a July birthday with the same raw score.
You have a table for each test, whatever it is, and you look up each child as an individual.
SS of 100 is the norm for that age, 105 is a whisker above average, 131 is very good. 85 is often used as a criteria for putting in extra SEN support

Goblinchild is right. The tests are nationally standardised and so the result is not likely to be false. She probably is naturally good at maths, and so enjoys it and vv, and is average at literacy.

Why was she tested on these? How old is she It does show a discrepancy between maths and literacy - this is typically used as one of the indicators of possible dyslexia-type difficulties as a bright child may appear "normal" for literacy when they should be functioning at a much higher level.

Really? I wouldn't worry at all about a child who had a mismatch of scores like this at primary age, and certainly a score of 105 wouldn't trigger thoughts of SEN.
I'd need a lot more assessment of what she was actually doing in class both in focused and independent tasks before I was concerned.
Or are you trying to give lexcat kittens?

No I wouldn't worry either,OP's child is obviously very good at maths! And she is clearly not SEN, but why the discrepancy?

But I was wondering why she was tested - I've not heard of state schools routinely testing maths / literacy with standardised tests, though maybe it's usual for private schools?

I just quickly found this - about halfway down on the RHS there's a bit about discrepancies.

I'm in a state school, we test everyone in September and in May/June to match scores and track progress. In addition to APP, and TA of all curriculum areas.

yes they do them at dcs school

the only discrepancies they were worried about were the fact that dd scored v highly in the englishy/VR one but her actual work she produced in class was of a far far lower standard than her score suggested. So for us, that's when they started intervening iyswim.

Why the discrepancy?
Maths is logical, usually has a clear answer and is more linear in the early stages.
Reading involves a range of different skills depending on the focus of the test, phonics, sight words, comprehension.
Let's not get into how many different points there are to achieve in any writing task.
Two of my children needed a reader for the maths test and scored around 110 SS.

Thanks for all the advice. She's 8 and her maths score has climbed over the last 3 year Yr 2 it was 110 Yr3 120 and now Yr4 131. It's our local state school and they test them at the start of every new academic year.

Very interesting tilly your point about discrepancy between maths and literacy as I myself am dyslexic. Don't think that is the case with dd as she is a very good reader and pretty good at spelling. She just doesn't like writing. Plus the it's the same as the verbal reasoning.