KS2 SATs Scaled Score Converter
Mark a past KS2 paper, type the raw mark in, and see the scaled score it would have earned in that year’s tests. Every table comes from the Standards and Testing Agency’s published conversion tables.
KS2 SATs scaled score converter
Turn a raw mark on a past KS2 paper into the scaled score it would have earned that year. A scaled score of 100 is the expected standard; 110 or more counts as working at greater depth in reading and maths.
| Raw mark | Reading | GPS | Maths |
|---|
What a KS2 scaled score is, and what it is not
KS2 SATs results are not reported as a mark or a percentage. Every raw score is converted onto a scale where 100 is the expected standard, and the conversion is different every year. This tool does that conversion using the published tables.
How the scale works
| Scaled score | What it means |
|---|---|
| Below 100 | Working towards the expected standard |
| 100 | The expected standard |
| 110 and above | Usually described as working at greater depth |
| 80 to 120 | The full reported range |
The conversion changes annually because it accounts for how hard that year's papers were. A raw mark that reached 100 one year might not the next, and comparing raw marks across years tells you very little.
That is why a practice paper score is only meaningful once it has been converted using the table for that specific paper.
What SATs actually affect
This is the question parents most want answered, and the honest answer is: less than the stress level suggests.
- They do not affect secondary school admission. Places are allocated well before the tests are sat.
- They are passed on to secondary school and are typically used for setting and for Year 7 baseline targets.
- They are a school accountability measure. A large part of what SATs exist to do is measure the school, not the child.
Worth saying out loud to an anxious Year 6: nothing about this number decides where they go to school. It is worth doing well and it is not worth losing sleep over, and children rarely hear the second half of that sentence.
Using a practice score to plan
The score itself is the least useful output. What matters is which paper produced it.
In maths, a low arithmetic paper and a decent reasoning paper is a fluency problem, and fluency responds to short daily practice within weeks. The reverse pattern, strong arithmetic and weak reasoning, is a comprehension and planning problem, and it needs a different fix entirely: reading questions together and planning them out loud without solving them.
In English, a low grammar and punctuation score is the most improvable thing in the whole of KS2, because it is named technical knowledge with right and wrong answers. A low reading score is a much slower fix and often a pace problem rather than a comprehension one.
Where the marks usually are
Across the KS2 papers we mark, the recurring losses are fractions of amounts, multi-step word problems, ratio, converting units, and anything involving time. On the English side it is the three-mark reading questions that want evidence from the text rather than an opinion.
Our interactive lessons cover the maths topics from the basic version upwards, which is usually faster than another practice paper.
Questions parents ask
What is a good scaled score?
100 is the expected standard and 110 or above is greater depth. Both are worth having and neither decides anything about secondary school.
The more useful measure is direction of travel. A child who moves from 92 to 99 across a year has done well, whatever the label says.
Can we work out the scaled score before results day?
Only approximately, using the conversion table from a previous year. The current year's table is published with the results.
It is close enough to be useful for planning and not close enough to quote as a fact.