NSHD - Age 11 - Arithmetic Test

The MRC National Survey of Health of Development (NSHD) assessed their cohort members (CMs) during the study’s age 11 sweep using the Arithmetic Test.

Details on this measure and the data collected from the CMs are outlined in the table below.

In this section

NSHD Age 11 Arithmetic Test

Year of data collection:	1957
Domain:	Verbal (problem questions)
	Non-verbal (mechanical sums)
Measures:	Mathematical ability/knowledge
	Mathematical achievement
CHC:	Gq (Quantitative Knowledge)
CLOSER Source:	Explore this sweep in CLOSER Discovery: NSHD 1957 (Age 11) (opens in a new tab)
Administration method:	Teacher/psychologist/trained individual; face to face; pen and paper
Procedure:	This test consisted of 50 questions (20 mechanical sums, 30 problem questions). Questions assessed ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide. The overall testing session at age 11 lasted under 2 hours.
Link to questionnaire:	https://skylark.ucl.ac.uk/NSHD/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=questionnaires:1957_sm_nf3.pdf (opens in new tab)
Scoring:	One mark for each solved problem (0 – 50)
Item-level variable(s):	Not currently available
Total score/derived variable(s):	A11R, A11R57, A1157, A11N
Descriptives:	Raw score	Normalised score
	N = 4,025	N = 4,025
	Range = 0 – 50	Range = 55 – 147
	Mean = 26.39	Mean = 101.84
	SD = 11.74	SD = 15.13
	(click image to enlarge)	(click image to enlarge)
Age of participants (months):	Mean = 130.33, SD = 1.06, Range = 128 – 137
Other sweep and/or cohort:	None
Source:	Pigeon DA. Tests used in the 1954 and 1957 surveys. In: Douglas JWB, ed. The home and the school. London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1964. (Appendix 1.)
Technical resources:	None
Example articles:	Richards, M., Hardy, R., Kuh, D., & Wadsworth, M. E. (2001). Birth weight and cognitive function in the British 1946 birth cohort: longitudinal population based study. BMJ, 322(7280), 199-203.
	Kuh, D., Richards, M., Hardy, R., Butterworth, S., & Wadsworth, M. E. (2004). Childhood cognitive ability and deaths up until middle age: a post-war birth cohort study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 33(2), 408-413.