You may notice a slight difference between the scores that your students achieve in Atom mock tests vs scores they achieve in national assessments such as the CAT4. Like the CAT4 SAS, the Atom Learning SAS has been calculated in exactly the same way by being verified every year based on analysis from a population of more than 150,000 students. However, you can expect Atom’s SAS to be 8-12 points below a CAT4 or other national test scores.
The Atom Learning SAS is lower than the CAT4 SAS because it has been standardised by, on average, higher-ability students at independent schools. The ‘average’ performance for students using Atom Learning is higher than the national average.
As an example, if a student completes an Atom mock test and a CAT4 test and achieves the same raw score (performing exactly the same in each test), their SAS on Atom will likely be ~8-10 points lower than their CAT4. If they achieved a SAS of 108 in the CAT4, their score on Atom would likely be ~100. This is because the majority of students using Atom are performing above the national average, therefore a student who is performing just above the national average (indicated by a CAT4 score of 108) is likely to be performing at an average level against the cohort of students using Atom.