How a raw mark becomes a standardised score
The raw mark is compared with the whole cohort
A standardised age score takes your child’s raw mark and compares it with everyone else who sat the same test, on a scale where about 100 is the age-group average. Roughly two thirds of children score between 85 and 115.
Then the birthday adjustment is applied
A child born in August can be nearly a year younger than a classmate born the previous September, while sitting the same paper on the same morning. The adjustment exists so the youngest children in a year group are not at a standing disadvantage in every selective test in the country.
See how the two combine
An illustration, not a prediction: no provider publishes its real mapping, so nobody, including us, can convert a practice percentage into the score a school will see. What it does show honestly is how much the age part actually moves things.
A qualifying score is not the score that gets a place
Reaching the standard puts your child into the pool; the oversubscription criteria, usually distance or a priority area, decide who is offered from that pool. That is why some schools admit children well above their published qualifying score. Where a school publishes its score, and where we have found what admitted pupils actually scored, both are on that school’s page.
Find your target school’s published scoresA percentage is not a score
Anyone offering an exact conversion from a practice percentage is guessing. Providers standardise against the cohort that sat that particular test, using weightings they do not publish. A percentage tells you about progress over time; it cannot be turned into the number a school will see.
Common questions
Is 100 a good score?
100 is the average for the age group, not a pass mark. Selective schools set their own qualifying standard, and many sit somewhere above 110. The number that matters is the one your target school publishes.
How much does my child’s birthday actually matter?
It matters, and it is built into the score rather than being a favour. A younger child on the same raw mark will usually be given a slightly higher standardised score, because the mark is more impressive for the age.
Why do different schools quote different scores?
Different tests, different scales, different standards. A qualifying 121 at one school and 332 at another are not comparable: the second is usually a total across several papers. Always read the scale alongside the number.
What is a standardised age score?
A score adjusted for how old your child was on the day of the test, scaled so the average child in the age group scores about 100. It lets a school compare September-born and August-born children fairly.
Can I convert a practice percentage into a standardised score?
Not reliably, and anyone offering an exact conversion is guessing. Providers standardise against the cohort that sat that particular test, using weightings they do not publish. A practice percentage tells you about progress over time; it cannot be turned into the number a school will see.
Practice reported the way schools report it
PlusProgress reports progress as a standardised age score, on the same scale as the one the school will send you. We hold dates of birth and results across hundreds of sittings of the same papers, which is exactly the database age-standardisation needs.