cat tests

[green]

hi, my son has just recently had his cat tests results which are 108, i am quite shocked as i honestly thought it would be slightly higher. I understand that they are there to provide a basic guideline to help to decide what your child is capable of however i really do not know now which grammar school i should put down as first choice and more to the point does this mean, that he has no chance of passing

regards

Confused mum

[Catherine]

Hi green,

In which year is your child? I personally don't know what cat scores should be, but I know that some kids do not perform in tests for various reasons.

Has your child done any SATs tests (year 4 or year 5?).

[Guest]

well he is in yr 6 and is in a private school, the head teacher states that by having this test, this provides parents of a guideline of what the child will get. not only am i upset but my son now has started to lack confidence which i did not want.
My son did the same in year 5 and received the exact same result which has left me confused as this is a year later.

regards

green

[guest00]

Green,

have you spoken to the school? What do they say about the results? I don't know much about CAT scores but if the school do the tests to provide parents of a guideline, then they should be able to advise about grammar schools.

Before you start stressing too much (easier said than done, I was in your position last year) speak to the school.

[Guest]

You can look at the NfER website for more information. Go to the following page and then open up the KS2 Summary table

http://www.nfer-nelson.co.uk/education/ ... .asp?css=1

From that you will see that 108 indicates SATs English 4A Maths 4A Science 5C

This means that most children scoring 108 will achieve the above results.

[Catherine]

hi, my son has just recently had his cat tests results which are 108, i am quite shocked as i honestly thought it would be slightly higher. I understand that they are there to provide a basic guideline to help to decide what your child is capable of however i really do not know now which grammar school i should put down as first choice and more to the point does this mean, that he has no chance of passing

Has your son done any 11+ practice tests and on which papers? This would give a ore direct indication of what his level is for the 11+ tests.

As for chosing the schools, it is difficult to know what the effect of the new admission arrangements is going to be have on consortium place allocation. So far, pupils have needed a higher pass score for Langley, but considering Herschel popularity and Slough Grammar split from the consortium, it may be different this year.
What are your real preferences?

[green]

he has now been achieving 86% in verbal tests at ** tution, my first choice is burnham, and second is hershel.
The cats were nfer papers and the highest score was in maths, but was very weak on vr and non vr,now with a bit of extra help verbal has increased to 86% but am scared as head teacher advised at the time that there was no point sitting bucks, but with extra help since, he has really improved.

shall we still put bucks as my first choice , please note the cat tests were straight after summer hols and for the last two weeks or so, is a lot better?

regards

[Catherine]

It won't do any harm to put Burhnam first. In the case your son passes Slough only, Burhnam will just be crossed out of his preferences and he will be offered a place in Slough.
If anything, taking the Bucks test will give him some experience for the Slough exam.

In addition, your son seems to be doing well in VR now

So fingers cross, he is going to get through the Bucks tests..