The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) assessed their cohort members (CMs) during the study’s age 7 sweep using the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) Progress in Maths (adapted) measure.
Details on this measure and the data collected from the CMs are outlined in the table below.
| Domain: | Mathematical skills and knowledge | |||
| Measures: | Adaptation of the Progress in Maths 7 (PiM) test which was developed to assess mathematical ability. The child's mathematical skills and knowledge are tested by asking 20 questions covering topics such as numbers, shapes, measurement and data handling. | |||
| CHC: | Gq (Quantitative Knowledge) | |||
| Administrative method: | Home interviewer, face to face; verbal and child responds using pen and paper | |||
| Procedure: | The test is read aloud to the child and they are asked to complete a series of calculations in a paper and pencil exercise. | |||
| The test was adapted from the NFER Progress in Maths test (Cres Fernandes, NFER). All CM's had to complete an initial test and based on their score they were routed to an easier, medium or harder section. An item response scaling method (Rasch) was used to scale the results of the easy, medium and hard subtest scores to the equivalent original raw scores. | ||||
| Link to questionnaire: | https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mcs4_cog_phys_documentation.pdf (opens in new tab) | |||
| Scoring: | 1 - 7 completed by all; routed into easier, medium and harder. Items 2 to 4, 13 and 17 score 2 points, all other items score 1 point | |||
| Item-level variable(s): | DMSCRE01- DMSCRE20 (items) | |||
| DCMT_1_7 - DCMSCR_HRD (totals by sections e.g. 1-7 items) | ||||
| Total score/derived variable(s): | DCMTOTSCOR (raw score) | |||
| DCMATHS7SC (ability adjusted) | ||||
| DCMATHS7SA (ability and age adjusted - look up tables 2004) | ||||
| Age of participant (months): | Mean = 86.74, SD = 2.98, Range = 76 - 98 | |||
| Descriptives: | DCMTOTSCOR | DCMATHS7SC | DCMATHS7SA | |
| (raw score) | (ability adjusted) | (ability and age adjusted) | ||
| N | 13,756 | 13,756 | 13,756 | |
| Range | 0 - 15 | 0 - 28 | 69 - 136 | |
| Mean | 9.58 | 18.38 | 97.65 | |
| SD | 2.84 | 5.84 | 15.72 | |
(click image to enlarge) | (click image to enlarge) | (click image to enlarge) |
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| Other sweep and/or cohort: | None | |||
| Source: | Adapted version specifically for MCS (by Cres Fernandes) of NFER Progress in Maths test which is aimed for 7-year-olds and was originally developed and nationally UK standardised in 2004. | |||
| Technical resources: | Chaplin Gray, J., Gatenby, R., Simmonds, N., & Huang, Y. (2010). Millennium Cohort Study Sweep 4: Technical Report (Second Edition). London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies. | |||
| Connelly, R. (2013). Interpreting Test Scores. Millennium Cohort Study Data Note 2013/01. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies. | ||||
| Reference examples: | Jones, E & Schoon, I. (2010). Cognitive development. In Hansen, K, Jones, E, Joshi, H and Budge, D (ed), Millennium Cohort Study Fourth Survey: A User's Guide to Initial Findings. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies. | |||
| Campbell, T. (2015). Stereotyped at seven? Biases in teacher judgement of pupils' ability and attainment. Journal of Social Policy, 44(3), 517-547. | ||||
Go to:
- Overview of all cognitive measures in MCS
- Overview of childhood cognitive measures across all studies
This page is part of CLOSER’s ‘A guide to the cognitive measures in five British birth cohort studies’.