HSPT scores explained: standard scores, percentiles and composites

An HSPT score report has several kinds of numbers. Here’s what each one means, using the definitions from Scholastic Testing Service (STS), which publishes the HSPT.

Every number on the report

Number	Range	What it means
Standard score	200 to 800, average 500	Your child’s result on a common scale. STS says the scales are comparable across years.
National percentile	1 to 99, average 50	The share of a national sample of eighth graders who scored lower. That sample is students entering high school who go on to graduate, so it’s more selective than the general population.
Local percentile	1 to 99	How your child compares with a local group only: the students tested at the same school or, in a multi-school program such as a diocese, the group that program sets.
Cognitive Skills Quotient (CSQ)	55 to 145, average 100	Based on the Verbal and Quantitative scores and your child’s age. STS says 110 and above is roughly the top quarter of students.
Grade equivalent (GE)	Shown as a grade and month, such as 10.4	Compares your child with average students in other grades, for Reading, Math and Language.
Stanine	1 to 9, average 5	Percentiles grouped into nine bands (see below).

A percentile is not a percent correct. STS’s own example: a Verbal standard score of 488 equals the 48th percentile.

Two numbers that are easy to misread

• Grade equivalents. An 8th grader’s math GE of 10.4 means they do 8th-grade math as well as an average sophomore does. It doesn’t mean they can do 10th-grade math, and STS warns against using GEs to place students in a grade.
• Local percentiles. The top 5% of a local group get local percentiles of 95 or higher, however they do nationally. In a competitive area, a strong student’s local percentile can be much lower than their national percentile.

HSPT stanine bands

Stanine	Percentiles
9	96–99
8	88–95
7	76–87
6	60–75
5	41–59
4	24–40
3	12–23
2	4–11
1	1–3

These bands are slightly different from the ISEE’s, so don’t use one test’s table for the other.

The three composite scores

Composite	Made from
Total Cognitive Skills	Verbal Skills and Quantitative Skills
Total Basic Skills	Reading, Mathematics and Language
Battery Composite	All five subtests

Composites aren’t averages of the subtest scores. STS adds up the raw scores for the subtests in each composite and converts that total separately.

What counts as a good HSPT score?

STS sets no passing score. Each school weighs HSPT scores in its own way, and STS suggests that schools using a cutoff base it on standard scores. Ask each school how it uses the scores.

Getting your child’s scores

Schools and dioceses, not STS, run the HSPT and handle scores, so STS doesn’t mail results home. Ask the school where your child tested for a copy. In the NJ COOP program used by Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Paterson, STS emails reports to families; see NJ COOP HSPT 2026.

The HSPT counts only correct answers, with no penalty for wrong ones, so your child should answer every question.