Valley MedPsych
Understanding Your Scores
How to make sense of your scores in your report.
Your report includes a data table summarizing your performance on the various tests administered during your evaluation. These scores are standardized scores. Below is a snippet of an example data summary table as it may appear in your report (please note: these scores are random and meant as an example only; they do not reflect anyone's actual performance).
What are standardized scores?
The short, technical answer is that standardized scores reflect how many standard deviations a raw test score is away from the average of its group of normative data.
More practically speaking, standardized scores are a way to fairly compare performances of an individual against a larger representative group. Because different tests tend to have different scoring scales, converting a raw score to a standardized score allows comparison of someone's performance across various different tests.
But what are the standardized scores compared to?
A standardized score reflecting your performance on a particular test is compared to a larger group of data comprised of many individuals' performances on that same test. In particular, your standardized scores are compared against groups of normative data from several individuals most similar to you in age and education. The comparison of your standardized score on a test to a body of normative data most similar to you in age and education helps us determine if your score is atypical for your age and education.
Types of standardized scores.
The data summary table in your report includes different types of standardized scores: Standard Scores, Scaled Scores, T Scores, and z Scores. These standardized scores can also be converted into percentiles. Below, our example data summary table highlights the types of standardized scores.
Percentiles are a more intuitive way to compare an individual's scores to the data points in the normative group. As an example, a score in the 75th percentile means that 75% of the data points in the normative group are at or below that particular score. It also indicates that only 25% of the data points are above that score. Our sample data summary table below highlights the percentiles.
Rarely, test scores are reported in the data table as "Raw Scores". These raw scores are not standardized and just reflect your total score on that particular test. This means that a raw score on one test cannot be compared to a raw score on another test. Tests reported using raw scores may be described in a more qualitative way that details the individual's performance or according to a test-specific scale (e.g., a total score below a certain value qualifies as "impaired" performance on that test). Our sample data summary table below highlights two examples of raw scores you may see in your report.
Descriptors
Your data summary table includes descriptors to help communicate where your score falls within the normative population. Below is a list of descriptors and their corresponding percentile ranges.
