CAT test results

[imnervous]

Hi

Received DS (13 yr 8) school report today and there are scores at the top of the page.

I wondered if anyone knew what they meant?

Thanks

Bumping!

I'm particularly confused by a big difference between the scores. I've tried googling and got no where!

When DD1 did CATs in y7 the scores were normalised at 100.

So approx. 95-105 was 'average', higher was better, lower was less good. She had scores for maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. They explained there was across cohorts a correlation between CAT scores and GCSE results, in as much as higher scores predicted better results, but other things like attitude come massively in to play and to not let lower scores make you think you couldn't succeed.

DD 'outperformed' her (lowish) CATs by 0.5-1 GCSE grades per subject.

What are the results, if you post them I can explain.

A CATS score of 118+ was in dc's primary school, an indicator that you were considered suitable to take the selection test for the grammar schools

Hi Trinity

Verbal - 118
Quantative- 119
Non verbal - 141

Thanks

So the verbal reasoning (ability to reason with words) and quantitative (maths skills) are just on the above average range, the non verbal is the highest it can be. Non verbal is the ability to reason with pictures, e.g. Find the shape that fits with the rest, find the odd one out etc....

Higher Non verbal tends to indicate higher chances of success in Maths.

So basically your son should end up with a good crop of GCSE grades and is funamentally capable, so if he is in the lower sets then you need to be questioning why he is underperforming at school. If he is in higher sets and working hard/achieving good results then all is well.

Thanks Trinity, I really appreciate that. I called school to ask if someone could explain the numbers to me but had no call back.

It was the difference in the numbers that concerned me as having googled it it seemed to imply that it was a problem.

DS is very good at Maths and in top set, always had what I would consider a logical brain, not so good at English but is ok

Don't know if this helps anyone but ds' school gave us a rough guide for Y7 (they took them in Summer of Y6)
Average 85-115
Above average - 115 and above
Below average - 85 or below

It would be a problem if all the numbers were low and there was a discrepancy, but since the worst number you son has is above average a discrepancy is unlikely to cause any difficulties.

My dd had similar scores butvthecithercway around (off the scale for verbal but much lower for non verbal & quantitative.

This triggered the senco to have a look st her & combined with other things the school called in an ex psych. A spiky profile can indicate a specific learning difficulty. In dds case it turns out she is high functioning autistic & she was given support as she was underachieving.

She's now year 10 & doing very well.

DS has a spiky profile and he has dyslexia. His CATs test results were much lower than his full scale Ed Psych IQ test which is meant to be more accurate. It might be worth investigating to see if there is some mild dyslexia in the mix.

That's interesting to know fournant as dd has just been given predicted GCSE grades based on Cats which are really high for English & RS (8) but low for maths & science (5/6/7)

However her full scale IQ (Weshler(sp) is MENSA level.

Do a bit of googling and you will find more information. CATs are definitely less accurate than a proper IQ test. I even found something about very bright children being more likely to underperform on group tests because they are able to see more than one answer. DS has dyslexia and got confused by all the swimming boxes. The verbal test was reading/spelling whereas the proper IQ test was spoken and he got a much much higher score. Beware of school having low expectations although they should readjust their predictions if your DD is doing well. DS was put into bottom set English initially but ended up in the top set (despite poor spelling). Sadly, I suspect that there are many bright dyslexics in low ability sets.

I think the expectations thing is ok because I was really worried when I got her interim grades report at half term which had predicted grades on but at parents evening a few weeks later I queried it with the biology teacher who had a conflab with the chemistry teacher & they explained it had been done from cats & they thought she would do better than that & she was on course for 7s in science & 7/8 in maths.

School havnt shared her year 10 cats but in year 7 they were

Verbal 131
Quantitive 105
Non Verbal 118

Her WASI scores were

Verbal 153
Performance 114
Full Scale 138

The big difference between Verbal and Non Verbal is generally due to SEN.

If you have any concerns about dyslexia, dyspraxia, ASD or something like that then you are right and these scores suggest you should investigate more.

Of course if you have no other concerns than this by itself isn't a reason to panic....... But he's a very bright boy and that could be masking some of his problems.

Hmmm Salty, that's what I was worrying about having seen it on a couple of websites. I'm not sure about him having any underlying SEN issues?

It was parents evening this week and we asked his Maths teacher about the numbers but she didn't seem to really know anything

If his overall scores are that high then he's extremely likely to be "top 20%" of his year group and therefore should be getting challenging work in class. His profile is what is called "distinct" and would indicate a preference for a specific teaching:learning style - but that doesn't mean he won't learn in different ways just that some styles will suit him extremely well. I would imagine given the changes to GCSEs that the use of CATs as a predictor will be less relied on for the next few years - certainly that's been the case in Scotland due to the introduction of Nationals and the lack of exact correlation with Standard Grades/Intermediate exams. I would not necessarily be worried about the discrepancy in scores being an indicator of SEN; you'd be surprised at how many children have scores like that! I'm a secondary teacher btw so use CAT scores quite a lot.