Information for Parents / Guardians on student baseline testing

Year 7 CAT's

Introduction

C.A.T. stands for Cognitive Ability Test.

At Stratford upon Avon School, like many Secondary Schools, we test our students early in Year 7 to ascertain their baseline ability and to help judge the expected progress they should make throughout their school education.

These tests are particularly useful as they help to statistically predict a student's learning potential across a range of curriculum subjects whilst also indicating a student's preferred learning style.

What are C.A.Ts?

C.A.T's measures a student’s ability to reason with and manipulate different types of symbols important in thinking processes.

Students sit 3 Tests covering:

Verbal Reasoning (VR)           -        thinking with words

Non-Verbal Reasoning (NVR) -         thinking with shape and space

• C.A.Ts can be used to indicate a student’s potential and their possible performance in future examinations.

What results do students get and what do they mean?

Students are given 4 standard scores

VR                           -                  Verbal Reasoning

QR                           -                  Quantitative Reasoning

NVR                         -                  Non-Verbal Reasoning

Mean C.A.T.           -                  Average of the above 3 scores

Scores range from 60 to 140.

100 is the National Average on each measure.

Therefore, students with scores above 100 are considered to be above the national average.