Standardised age scores (SAS) – guide for tutors

All you need to know about standardised age scores – what they mean, how they’re calculated, and how to use them.

Using SAS with your students

We give your students an SAS for each mock test they complete on Atom Home. This is the same scoring system used in the real exam, so it’s the best way to know what to expect.

A student’s SAS tells you how they're likely to perform on the real exam, at their current level of knowledge. Keeping an eye on how their SAS develops over time will give you insights into their progress.

What SAS should my students aim for?

If a student is applying for selective schools, aim for an SAS of at least 115 by the time they’re ready to take the 11+. 

For more competitive grammar or independent schools, aim for an SAS of 120 and above.

If they're not applying to a selective school, use SAS as a general indicator of their progress. An SAS of 112 or above tells you they're working above average for their year group and are in a strong position to take their next steps such as starting secondary school.

How can I improve my students' SAS?

Your students’ mock test scores will grow over time as you support them to build knowledge in the exam topics. 

If they have Atom Home, encourage them to log in for short, regular practices between tuition sessions. Explain to parents that their child should:

• Keep working through their weekly activities, answering the questions independently
• Use the videos and helpsheets to build their understanding

You can set extra practices to target any topics a student struggled with on a mock test. Your student’s exam prep plan will also target these areas automatically. 

By the time they next take a mock test, their understanding will have increased and they’ll be likely to achieve a higher SAS.

Students can also improve their SAS by building their exam technique. By practising mock tests, your students will get familiar with taking timed tests. They’ll get used to pacing themselves – which will let their knowledge shine.

My student is disappointed by their SAS

We want to give you the clearest data to help you do what you do best. But, we know that not every child will like to see that they have scored ‘below average’. Your student should be proud of their effort and progress, not discouraged by a lower-than-average SAS.

Reassure your student and their parent that there are many reasons they may have scored ‘below average’ – from having an off day, to not being used to exam conditions, to simply needing more practice in those topics. Remind them that:

• A ‘below average’ SAS is not something to worry about. With regular practice, it’ll soon increase.
• The SAS is a snapshot of their performance in one mock test. ‘Below average’ is only a statistical description of their score in this mock test. It’s not a description of their abilities, their hard work, or their potential.

Even if your student normally works above average in a subject, they might need to develop their exam skills before they can score highly in mock tests. For example, perhaps they find exam conditions daunting, or tend to rush the questions.

Take time to talk through your student's results in a positive and encouraging way. Identify skills or topics they’d like to practise more and build confidence in.

My client doesn’t want their child to see their SAS

On Atom Home, parents can password-protect the Track page so the child can't see their scores. We recommend they do this if the student is likely to find their SAS demotivating or distracting.

---

SAS accuracy on Atom

How do you make sure your scoring is accurate?

Each year, students complete hundreds of thousands of tests across our platforms. This data allows us to ensure the scoring on our platform is as close to the real position as possible.

We're constantly improving our platforms to give tutors, parents and teachers access to the most useful, robust data. After each exam season, we expand our data set, adding data from ~700,000 completed tests. We seek regular feedback to make sure our scoring is as accurate as possible to the results achieved in real exams.

My student only got one question wrong, but their SAS is only 130. Shouldn't it be higher?

Standardised age scores are mapped onto a distribution curve. An SAS of 100 places a student as exactly average for their year group. A score of 120 or above places a student in the top 10% of their year.

Only the top 4% of students achieve an SAS of 130+, and the top 1% achieve a score of 140–142. Standardised scores don't correspond directly to raw scores – they're calculated using factors such as the child's age and performance compared to peers.

If your student achieved an SAS of 130, this puts them in the top 4%. It shows that around 4% of students only answered one question incorrectly in this test.

Learn more in this video.

My student got a different SAS on two tests even though they got the same number of correct answers. Why? 

There are a few reasons why a student might get a different SAS despite the same raw score. SAS is based not just on how many questions were answered correctly, but also:

• The difficulty of the questions answered correctly
• The time allocated
• The child's age in years and months.

On the test where they got a higher SAS, your student likely answered more difficult questions correctly.

If one or both of the tests were adaptive (like ISEB), the SAS is further impacted by any mistakes made early in the test. When taking an adaptive test, accuracy is key. Each answer will impact the difficulty of the questions your student sees later in the test.

• If a student gets easy questions correct, the test will show them more difficult questions. This gives them a greater opportunity to achieve a high SAS.
• Conversely, if a student gets easier questions wrong, the test will keep showing them easy questions. They won't see the more difficult questions.

Lastly, if your student is practising for multiple exams, you can expect them to achieve a different SAS in different types of test. This is because each SAS is calculated against other pupils who took the same test. The same raw score could place your student in an average position in one cohort, but above average in another cohort.