'Is 118 good?' 'What does standardised even mean?' 'Why did she get a higher raw mark than her friend but a lower final score?' Every autumn, these questions fill parent forums the moment mock results — and later real results — land. The honest answer is that the number on that letter isn't a percentage or a grade; it's a specifically engineered comparison. Once you know what it's comparing, it stops being mysterious.
What a standardised score actually measures
Most GL Assessment-based 11+ tests don't report the raw number of questions your child got right. Instead, that raw mark is converted into a standardised score — a figure that adjusts for the difficulty of that specific paper and, crucially, for your child's exact age in months on the day of the test. The national average standardised score is set at 100, whatever the raw marks looked like, so a 100 always means 'exactly average for this cohort' — never 'half marks.'
Why age-standardisation exists
Children in the same school year can be up to almost twelve months apart in age — a September-born child sitting the same paper as one born the following August. At age 10–11, that gap is developmentally significant. Age-standardisation corrects for it: a summer-born child's raw marks are compared only against other children of a similar age, then converted onto the same 100-average scale as everyone else. The result is a fairer comparison than raw marks alone could ever give.
A simplified illustration of why the same raw mark can produce different standardised scores.
Child A
- Birth month
- September (oldest in year)
- Raw mark
- 62/80
- Effect of standardisation
- Compared against older peers — score adjusts down slightly
Child B
- Birth month
- August (youngest in year)
- Raw mark
- 58/80
- Effect of standardisation
- Compared against younger peers — score adjusts up to reflect the age gap
A simplified illustration of why the same raw mark can produce different standardised scores.
| Child | Birth month | Raw mark | Effect of standardisation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Child A | September (oldest in year) | 62/80 | Compared against older peers — score adjusts down slightly |
| Child B | August (youngest in year) | 58/80 | Compared against younger peers — score adjusts up to reflect the age gap |
Is there a fixed pass mark?
This is where regions genuinely differ, and where most parent confusion starts — because there is no single UK-wide answer.
Broadly, grammar and selective areas use one of two systems:
- Qualifying score systems — a published or informally known threshold score that a child must reach to be considered 'passed,' after which school preference and catchment can still decide final allocation.
- Ranking systems — every child who sits the test is ranked by standardised score, with places offered from the top down until they run out — meaning there is no fixed number that guarantees a place, because it depends entirely on how that year's cohort performed.
Gloucestershire's consortium test, for example, ranks all children who sit the exam rather than publishing a fixed pass mark — so the 'right' score genuinely changes year to year depending on the cohort. Always check your specific region's current admissions guidance rather than relying on last year's number or a forum thread, because arrangements are reviewed and can change between intakes.
So what actually counts as 'good'?
In isolation: a score meaningfully above 100 shows above-average performance for age; a score at or near 100 is exactly average; below 100 is below average for that cohort. But 'good enough' only means something next to your target school's admissions data for that specific year and route — the same score can be comfortably above one school's typical range and below another's. That is precisely why the honest answer to 'is 115 good?' is always 'good compared to what?' rather than a single number a website can hand you.
What to do after you get the score
Whatever the number says:
- 1Check it against your specific target school's own published guidance or previous-year admissions data, not a generic online benchmark.
- 2If it's a mock score, treat it as a diagnostic — which paper pulled the score down, and is that a content gap or a timing problem?
- 3If it's the real result and borderline, check your region's appeals or waiting-list process before assuming the outcome is final.
- 4Whatever the number, keep the conversation with your child about effort and growth, not the score itself — confidence after results day matters for the years that follow, selective place or not.
A calm read of what the number is actually measuring is usually more useful to a family than the number itself — and that calm read is exactly what a diagnostic session gives you, whether it's mock results or the real thing.
Ready to find out where your child stands?
Sources
- Publicly published GL Assessment and regional grammar-school consortium admissions guidance — July 2026
Written by TutorMint Founder
15+ years of classroom and one-to-one teaching experience. Facts checked 26 July 2026.