When your child’s Key Stage 2 results arrive, you will see a number for each tested subject that looks nothing like a mark out of ten or a percentage. It will be somewhere between 80 and 120. This guide explains where that number comes from, what it means, and what it does not mean.
Two kinds of number: raw marks and scaled scores
A raw mark is the simple total of marks your child earns on a test. In the Year 6 tests (the SATs), each subject has its own total. Mathematics has three papers: paper 1 is arithmetic, and papers 2 and 3 are reasoning. English grammar, punctuation and spelling has two papers: a questions paper and a spelling test. English reading is a single paper.
A scaled score is what that raw mark is turned into for reporting. Every subject is reported on the same scale, from 80 to 120, however many marks the papers carried. Each subject gets its own scaled score, so your child will have one for reading, one for grammar, punctuation and spelling, and one for maths.
Writing and science are not tested in this way. Teachers assess them through the year, so there is no scaled score for either.
What 100 and 110 mean
Two points on the scale matter most:
- 100 or more means your child has met the expected standard for the end of Key Stage 2 in that subject.
- 110 or more is reported as a high score.
The bottom of the scale is 80 and the top is 120. The line at 100 is simply where the expected standard sits; a score just below it and a score just above it are only a point or two apart.
It helps to remember what a scaled score is for. It tells the school and you whether a child has reached the standard the national curriculum expects by the end of Year 6. It is a snapshot of one set of tests, taken in May. It is not a measure of how clever your child is, how hard they have worked, or what they will go on to do.
Why the raw mark needed changes every year
Parents often ask, “How many marks does my child need for 100?” The honest answer is that nobody knows until after the tests have been sat.
Each year’s papers are different, so one year’s maths paper may turn out a little harder or easier than the last. If the same raw mark always meant the same scaled score, a child sitting a harder paper would be unfairly marked down. To keep things fair, the Standards and Testing Agency publishes a conversion table each summer, after the tests, that says which raw marks become which scaled scores for that year. The raw mark needed for 100 therefore moves from year to year.
This is why you will not find an official raw mark for 100 printed anywhere before the tests, and why any table you see in advance is only a guess based on past years. Anyone who tells you that a particular number of marks “always” means a particular score is going further than the published facts allow.
When and how you will hear
Schools receive the results in early July. They share them with parents before the end of the summer term, so you should hear from your child’s school in the last weeks of Year 6.
The results are scaled scores for the tested subjects: reading, grammar, punctuation and spelling, and maths. Writing and science have no scaled score, as explained above.
Schools can apply access arrangements for children who need them (for example extra time, a reader for maths, or rest breaks). If you think your child may need one, the school is the place to ask.
Practice scores on Courselo
In the Papers tab of this course, your child can try practice papers. Each paper has a gentle timer, and a grown-up can switch it to relaxed time if the clock is unhelpful.
The scores shown at the end of a practice paper are approximate, because the papers are objective-only, meaning every question has a single right answer that can be checked without a marker’s judgement. Treat a practice score as a rough guide to how your child is getting on, not as a prediction of what will come home in July. The topic-by-topic progress in the grown-ups area, and the “Needs a hand” tips, will usually tell you more than any single number.
Something practical to do this week
- After a practice paper, look at the topic-by-topic progress in the grown-ups area rather than at the total. One topic that keeps needing a hand is a topic to revisit; a few different slips is just a normal day.
- Use the word “snapshot” with your child. A score is what happened on one day, not a label.
- Keep practice short and regular: a few questions most days does more than a long session once a week, and it keeps the tests feeling ordinary.
- If your child asks what score they “need”, you can honestly say that 100 is the expected standard and that nobody, not even the teachers, knows the exact mark for it until the summer. That takes the pressure off chasing a number.
Scaled scores are a reporting tool. They let schools say, fairly and in the same language every year, whether a child has reached the standard expected of them. Once you know that 100 is the expected standard, 110 is a high score, and the raw marks behind them change each year, you know everything you need to read your child’s results calmly.
Last checked: October 2026.