What is a standardised score in the 11 Plus (11+)?

Raw scores and standardised scores

Your child’s raw score is simply how many marks they got. It isn’t comparable between papers, because one paper might be harder than another, or longer, or marked out of a different total.

The standardised score is that raw score converted onto a fixed scale, built so that the average child in the year group scores 100. Above 100 is above average for the cohort, below 100 is below. The conversion is done after the papers are marked, using how everyone performed, which is why nobody can tell you the exact conversion in advance.

Where several papers are combined into one result, they’re often weighted, so a maths score and an English score may not count equally. The school or local authority decides that weighting; the test company doesn’t.

Why your child’s birthday matters

Within a single school year, the oldest child can be almost twelve months older than the youngest, and at ten years old that’s a real difference.

Standardisation adjusts for it. Your child’s age in years and months is taken into account, so a younger child needs fewer raw marks than an older child to reach the same standardised score. The adjustment is built into the conversion and happens automatically.

It doesn’t mean a summer-born child is at no disadvantage, and plenty of parents feel the allowance is smaller than the gulf it’s correcting for. But the birthday isn’t simply ignored.

Top tips

• Ask the school or local authority how the papers are weighted. It changes which subject deserves the most practice.
• Don’t compare your child’s standardised score with one from a different year. The conversion is redone against each cohort.
• A qualifying score isn’t a pass mark in the school sense. Where places are ranked, the score you need depends on who else applied.
• If a result comes with a breakdown by paper, read that rather than the single overall score; the useful information sits in the breakdown.
• Check the deadline for querying a result. It’s usually short, and it’s set by the school or the council.

What this means for papers you mark at home

The practical consequence: a percentage on a practice paper at home is not a standardised score, and it can’t be compared with a published qualifying score. There’s no cohort to standardise against at home.

What a practice paper score is good for is tracking your own child over time and pointing at weak topics. A run of scores climbing from 60 to 75 per cent on comparable papers tells you something real; that same 75 per cent measured against an area’s qualifying score tells you nothing.

For a fuller answer on thresholds, read what percentage you need to pass the 11+.

How to prepare

One of the most effective ways to prepare for an 11+ entrance exam is to use practice tests written by experts. We publish a full range of 11+ revision resources: area and school-specific practice tests, subject-specific packs, spelling and vocabulary resources, and reading books.

Each of our practice tests:

• is available as a PDF download or in physical format
• familiarises your child with the types of questions they will face in the real exam
• includes answers to every question, with detailed, step-by-step explanations for the maths and reasoning questions
• builds your child’s confidence before the actual exam.

Use the finder below to jump straight to the papers for your child’s school or area.

Find papers for your school or area

Grammar schools and area tests

• Bexley
• Bishop Wordsworth’s
• Buckinghamshire
• CSSE
• Ermysted’s
• Gloucestershire
• Henrietta Barnett
• Kent
• QE Boys
• Redbridge
• Slough Consortium
• St Olave’s
• Sutton
• The Latymer School
• Tiffin School & Tiffin Girls’ School
• Trafford
• West Midlands

Independent schools

• City of London School for Girls
• Hampton
• Latymer Upper
• Merchant Taylors’
• St Paul’s Girls’ School
• St Paul’s Juniors