Below are links to downloadable documents outlining norm and reference group information for our online school assessments.
Australian norms
Norm data that represents the achievement of students across Australia is available as a reference sample against which student achievement can be compared.
The comparison between a student's scale score achievement and the Australian norm sample can be expressed as a percentile rank.
The percentile rank of a score is the percentage of students who achieve less than that score. For example, a student with a percentile rank of 75th compared to the Year 3 norm sample has a scale score that is higher than 75% of Australian Year 3 students.
Australian reference groups
PAT reference group data are available as a sample against which student achievement can be compared.
Like the nationally representative norm samples available for other assessments, the data are drawn from the available database of Australian test takers, but there are typically fewer cases spread out over a range of schools. Results are therefore not a comparison with a well understood population.
The comparison between a student's scale score achievement and the Australian reference group sample can be expressed as a percentile rank.
The percentile rank of a score is the percentage of students who achieve less than that score. For example, a student with a percentile rank of 75th compared to the Year 3 reference group has a scale score that is higher than 75% of Australian Year 3 students in the reference group.