The SEAG result lands quietly. A letter through the post in late January, usually on an ordinary weekday morning. Inside is a page of numbers most parents have never been taught to read. A raw score. A TSAS. A CPR. And a band. The band is the number that registers first. But the rest of it is worth understanding, because the band only makes sense once you know how it was reached.

This guide walks through the scoring stage by stage, explains what each band actually means, and tells you what to do with the letter when it arrives.

How the SEAG score is calculated

Your child's result is not just a tally of right answers. It goes through three stages of processing before it becomes the band on the letter.

Stage one is the raw score. That is simply the total number of questions answered correctly across the two papers. Out of 112 marks in total. No standardisation yet. Just a count.

Stage two is the TSAS: Total Standardised Age Score. This is where age adjustment happens. Not all P7 children are the same age on test day. A child born in September is almost a full year older than a child born the following August. Across a P7 year, that gap matters. The standardisation gives a small uplift to the younger children in the cohort, so a July-born child is not measured on the same raw-score terms as a September-born child. The aim is to measure ability rather than age.

Stage three is the CPR: Cohort Percentile Ranking. Once every child has a TSAS, the whole Northern Ireland cohort is ranked. A CPR of 75 means your child performed better than 75 per cent of the children who sat the test that year. The CPR is what determines the band. Not the raw score. Not the TSAS on its own.

What the SEAG bands mean

There are six bands. Band 1 is the highest. Band 6 is the lowest. Each band is defined by a CPR range, which means the bands are relative. Your child's band reflects where they stand within the year group, not how many questions they got right in absolute terms.

Band 1 goes to children with a CPR of 60 or above. That is the top 40 per cent of the cohort. Most SEAG grammar schools treat Band 1 as their baseline for consideration, and the most selective schools treat it as effectively essential. Band 2 is the next tier, and some grammar schools will consider Band 2 applicants, particularly if their Band 1 pool does not fill all available places. Bands 3 to 6 cover the rest of the cohort, with Band 6 sitting below the 20th percentile.

It is worth pausing on that arithmetic. Band 1 is the top 40 per cent. That is a substantial slice of the year group, not a tiny elite. In our classrooms, the children who land in Band 1 are not unusual or rare. They are children who worked steadily across P7, knew the format, and went into the test calm. That is an achievable target for a motivated pupil with the right preparation. Worth keeping in mind on the days when the workload feels heavy.

Which band does my child need for grammar school?

Each grammar school in the SEAG consortium sets its own admissions criteria. The minimum band varies. The most oversubscribed schools require Band 1 and may rank within Band 1 using secondary criteria like siblings already at the school or distance from the school gate. Schools with less pressure on places have historically offered places to Band 2 applicants in years when their Band 1 pool was smaller.

So the band on its own does not tell you whether your child will get an offer from any particular school. It tells you where they stand in the cohort. What happens next depends on that school's criteria and on how many other applicants of each band have listed that school as a preference. Read the admissions criteria for every school on your list carefully. If something is unclear, phone the school office. They are used to the questions.

The day the letter arrives

Open the letter before your child sees it. Not because you expect bad news. Most children who prepared properly receive a reasonable result. Open it first because your face will tell your child everything in the first half-second. If you have a moment to absorb the result and find your composure, the conversation that follows goes better.

The letter shows the raw score, the TSAS, the CPR, and the band. Read all four. Then put your energy into understanding what the band means for the schools on your list. If the result is what you hoped for, say so warmly. If it is not, our guide on what to do if the SEAG doesn't go to plan walks through the next steps in detail.

For context on how the test itself was structured, our breakdown of the SEAG paper sections and timing explains where each mark on the raw score came from. If you are reading this with a younger child still in P6, the Test Day Preparation lesson is worth a look. A calm walkthrough you can use together long before results day.

One last thing

The letter is a piece of information. It is not a verdict on your child. It tells you where they stood relative to one cohort, on two specific Saturdays in November, in one particular test. It does not tell you who they are or what they are capable of. Read the numbers carefully. Make calm decisions about school applications. And remember that the band is the start of the next conversation, not the end of any of them.

For more on bands, scoring and what each result means, see the SEAG transfer test FAQ.