The tests have been completed and now it’s time for the transfer test result. This part can be almost as scary as sitting the actual test! At least with the new SEAG transfer test, you won’t be peaking out the living room curtains to see if the postman is coming up the street! As this is the first year of the SEAG transfer test, no one knows what the results will look like. So I am going to explain as best as I can, my interpretation of how SEAG have said the results will appear.
If you have a child in Primary 6 and you’re just checking out this blog post to get ahead for next year, you can sign up here to get a FREE SEAG Style Practice Paper and Teaching Guide.
Northern Ireland Transfer Results: School open nights
Most post-primary schools will have their open days and nights in January 2025, with some already beginning! This means your child will be going to see schools before they receive their transfer test results. This is completely fine, as it is good to see what each school is like. If you have taken your child to the school open days or nights last year, it’s still good to go back and see some of your child’s favourite schools again. I also recommend having a few backups in case your child cannot get into their preferred school. This may be due to the school being oversubscribed or they don’t meet the admissions criteria. You can check out a list of school open days and nights for 2024 here.
When are the transfer test results out?
The SEAG transfer test 2024 results are scheduled to be released on Saturday the 23rd of January 2025. As I said at the beginning of this blog post, there will be no peeking out the living room curtains waiting for the post. The results will be online!
How can you access your child’s Transfer Test results NI?
SEAG states on their website that, “You will be able to access your child’s results in “Statement of Outcomes” from a secure area on the SEAG website.”
My understanding of this is that to access your child’s result, you will need to log in to your child’s account on the SEAG website. If this is the case, you will need the email address you registered for SEAG with and your password. If you have forgotten your password, don’t panic, you can click to reset your password. I recommend trying to log in to your SEAG account a few days before. Just so you are good to go on Saturday the 23rd of January 2025.
Transfer Test Scores Explained
In this next section, I will discuss what SEAG will be using to calculate your child’s transfer test results.
What is a Statement of Outcomes?
A ‘Statement of Outcomes’ is SEAG’s way of giving your child their transfer test results 2024. This will tell you how your child performed overall in both of the SEAG transfer test papers.
You will see on your child’s ‘Statement of Outcomes’ a few different things:
- Total Standardised Age Score (TSAS)
- The Band
- English (or Gaeilge) Standardised Age Score (SAS)
- Maths Standardised Age Score (SAS)
- Cohort Percentile Ranking (CPR)
As you can see from above, SEAG love their acronyms. So if you think you might get a bit jumbled when reading your child’s Statement of Outcomes, save the graphic below so you have it to hand on the 23rd of January.
What is a Total Standardised Age Score (TSAS)?
To reach your child’s Total Standardised Age Score (TSAS) which is their final result, the assessor will look at your child’s Standardised Age Scores (SAS) for both the English or Gaeilge sections of the tests and the Maths sections of the tests. Both papers combined have 56 English questions and 56 Maths questions.
SEAG has said on their website that the Total Standardised Age Score (TSAS) range will be 138-282. However, if you add 56 English questions and 56 Maths questions you get 112. So how can the TSAS range be 138-282? This is because your child’s Standardised Age Score (SAS) takes into account a couple of other things.
What is a Standardised Age Score (SAS)?
As well as using the number of questions your child got correct in both papers 1 and 2, the Standardised Age Score (SAS) also takes into account your child’s age when they took the test and the difficulty of the test papers.
English or Gaeilge Standardised Age Score (SAS)
Each SEAG paper will have punctuation, grammar, spelling and comprehension sections. These sections make up the English or Gaeilge parts of the tests. Paper 1 has 28 English/Gaeilge questions and paper 2 has 28 English/Gaeilge questions. This means a student’s English or Gaeilge raw score will be out of 56.
SEAG states that the “English (or Gaeilge) SAS range will be 69-141” with an average of 100. This takes into account the student’s raw score, their age at the time of taking the test and the difficulty of the tests.
Maths Standardised Age Score (SAS)
The SEAG papers break the Maths sections into multiple choice maths questions and open-response maths questions. Paper 1 has 28 maths questions and paper 2 has 28 maths questions in total. This means a student’s Maths raw score will be out of 56.
SEAG states that the “Maths SAS range will be 69-141” with an average of 100. This takes into account the student’s raw score, their age at the time of taking the test and the difficulty of the tests.
Example of Standardised Age Scores:
Sarah was born on the 1st of August 2012, she was approximately 11 years and 3 months old when she sat the SEAG transfer test.
Mark was born on the 10th of December 2012, he was approximately 10 years and 11 months old, when he sat the SEAG transfer test.
Louise was born on the 20th of June 2013, she was 10 years old when she sat the SEAG transfer test, but she had nearly six months to wait until she turned 11, unlike Mark who turned 11 a couple of weeks after the SEAG transfer test.
Sarah’s Standardised Age Score (SAS):
SEAG will take Sarah’s raw score from SEAG Papers 1 and 2 for both English and Maths. Sarah scored:
- 44 out of 56 in the English questions
- 47 out of 56 in the Maths questions
- Sarah’s raw score is 91 out of 112
SEAG will take into account that Sarah was 11 years old and approximately 3 months when she sat the SEAG papers, she was born on the 1st of August 2012 and how difficult the tests were.
Mark’s Standardised Age Score (SAS):
SEAG will take Mark’s raw score from SEAG Papers 1 and 2 for both English and Maths. Mark scored:
- 40 out of 56 in the English questions
- 53 out of 56 in the Maths questions
- Mark’s raw score is 93 out of 112
SEAG will take into account that Mark was 10 years old and approximately 11 months when he sat the SEAG papers, he was born on the 10th of December 2012 and how difficult the tests were.
Louise’s Standardised Age Score (SAS):
SEAG will take Louise’s raw score from SEAG Papers 1 and 2 for both English and Maths. Louise scored:
- 39 out of 56 in the English questions
- 48 out of 56 in the Maths questions
- Louise’s raw score is 87 out of 112
SEAG will take into account that Louise was 10 years old and approximately 5 months old when she sat the SEAG papers, she was born on the 20th of June 2013 and how difficult the tests were.
Why does SEAG use Standardised Age Scores?
You might be wondering why SEAG use Standardised Age Scores (SAS) when calculating students’ transfer test results. What is the point of it? Well as you can see from the examples above, each child is a different age when they sit the tests. Therefore, it is only fair that SEAG gives each child a score based on their age at the time of the tests.
I understand that they will compare younger pupils’ transfer test NI score with other pupils in the same age category. Older pupils’ transfer test NI score will be compared with other pupils who fall into the older age category. The reason for this is to ensure fairness to all students sitting the SEAG tests.
The Bands
As well as receiving a Total Standardised Age Score (TSAS), your child will also receive a Band in their Statement of Outcomes. There are six bands in total, meaning your child will receive Bands 1-6 and Cohort. The cohort is all of the pupils who sit the SEAG tests in that particular year from all across Northern Ireland. The cohort percentile is used to determine the margins for each Band.
For example, if your child achieves a cohort percentile of 70, this doesn’t mean they scored 70% in the tests. It means they have scored in the top 30% of the students who sat the SEAG transfer tests that year and will be awarded Band 1.
If your child achieves a cohort percentile of 35, this means they scored in the top 65% of pupils who have sat the test and will be awarded Band 4.
Please note, that these cohort percentiles and Bands are to be used for example purposes only. The scoring for the 2023 SEAG transfer test will be based on every pupil’s score in Northern Ireland and therefore, the averages and results may vary year to year.
Bands 2-4
If your child is awarded a Band 2-4, they will be given the exact Cohort Percentile Ranking (CPR) for their child. The reason for this is to assist parents in determining if they want their child’s papers to be re-marked.
Grammar Schools Admissions Criteria
You are probably wondering how the schools will use your child’s Statement of Outcomes to decide whether they will offer a place at the school or not. Each post-primary school will decide what outcomes they will use for each academic year. SEAG identifies that schools will most likely use the Total Standardised Age Scores (TSAS) and the Band as the key outcomes.
Every school is different and it is up to the school and their Board of Governors to agree on the admissions criteria for each school year. The admissions criteria will include a student’s primary school transfer test results. They may decide to use pupils’ Total Standardised Age Score (TSAS), the band they receive or a combination of both. My recommendation is to check the admissions criteria for your child’s favourite schools.
For example, Hunterhouse has released its admissions criteria for the school year 2023/24. The criteria states that if the school is oversubscribed they will look at the TSAS awarded by SEAG. The Hunterhouse Admissions criteria document states that “Places in Year 8 will be allocated in strict rank order of TSAS scores, starting with the highest TSAS score, up to the approved Admission Number of 100.”
What should you do if you are not happy with my child’s result?
If you are not happy with your child’s transfer test results or you feel like a mistake has been made with the marking of their papers, you can ask for your child’s papers to be re-marked. As of this blog post, SEAG has not released any information about how you will do this. However, I’m sure they will release this information once the results have been sent out.
My advice is if you are having your child’s paper re-marked, maybe don’t mention it to them. You don’t want to get their hopes up or for them to feel like they haven’t done a good enough job. Your child will succeed no matter what school they go to if they put in the work. If you are worried about your child’s school choices, check out my blog post, Is the Transfer Test NI the Best Path for Your Child’s Education? In this blog post, I talk about my educational journey from going to a grammar school and my brother’s educational journey from going to a secondary school.
More Information on SEAG Transfer Test Results
13 important things you need to know about the SEAG Transfer Test
Transfer to a post-primary school
At the end of the day, no matter what your child’s NI transfer test results are, it doesn’t matter. Yes, they may be disappointed for a bit if they don’t get the result they expected and you might be upset too. But that’s ok! Sitting the transfer test will never be a wasted experience for your child as they will have learned some skills which they can take with them to secondary school and beyond! I want to wish good luck to all of the students who are getting their transfer test results soon! You will all be amazing!
