PATScores explained
PAT scores explained
Your child's PAT report from school has a scale score, an achievement band, a percentile and sometimes a stanine. Here is what each one means, in plain words, and which one to watch from year to year.
Scale score
One number that shows where your child sits on a long ladder of skills running from Year 1 to Year 10. A bigger number means harder work your child can do.
The ladder is the same whichever PAT test your child sat, so this year's number can be compared with last year's. Maths and Reading use different ladders, so a Maths number cannot be compared with a Reading number.
Every score has a margin of error of a few points, so a change of one or two points means very little.
Achievement band
The scale score sorted into a band, each with a short note on what children in that band can usually do.
It tells you what your child can do, not how they compare with other children.
Percentile
How your child compares with Australian children in the same year. The 70th percentile means your child scored higher than about 70 in every 100 children in that year.
It is not the percent of questions they got right. It can stay the same while your child improves, because the other children are improving too.
Stanine
A rough version of the percentile on a scale of 1 to 9. 5 is the middle, 4 to 6 is the usual range, 7 to 9 is above most children and 1 to 3 below most.
Only a difference of two or more stanines is worth noticing. Reports from the adaptive PAT tests do not show stanines.
The year level average
A line on the report marking the typical score for Australian children in that year, measured near the end of the school year.
If your child sat the test early in the year, expect the score to sit a little below that line.
Growth
Look at the scale score over two or more years, not the percentile or stanine. Steady growth matters more than any one year's number.
Reading it together
Three questions to ask of a report
- Has the scale score gone up since last year? Growth is the point of PAT.
- Which strands or skills does the report say were harder? That is where practice helps.
- When in the year was it sat? A score from early in the year usually sits a little below the year’s average line, which is measured near the end of the year.
Reports go to the school, not to families, so ask your child’s teacher if you would like to see one.
Our practice
What our PAT-style report shows
Our practice tests give no scale score, band, percentile or stanine. Those come from ACER’s own tests and ACER’s national results. Our report shows how each strand went and every question with its answer explained, so you can see what to work on.
PAT (Progressive Achievement Tests) is ACER's. Scholar Tests is not connected with ACER, and our practice tests are our own questions in the PAT style. ACER’s PAT pages