How to choose and use a norm table
Step 1
First of all, think carefully about the characteristics of your applicants. In choosing a norm table, you will usually be advised to pick a group which:
- Is representative of your candidates in terms of
- being applicants or job incumbents
- job title and job description
- industry sector
- Is demographically similar to your applicants in terms of
- gender distribution
- age range
- ethnic origin
- educational level
ABLE exercises are different from more traditional tests. With ABLE, the respondent is presented with analogues of real tasks drawing on some of the skills required in similar, real jobs. We would therefore expect ABLE to be related less closely to educational background than many conventional tests. You should therefore avoid looking for, for example, a "graduate norm table" and look instead at factors which reflect similarity in job tasks and in skills.
Step 2
Click on the name of the ABLE exercise in which you are interested to see which norm tables are available for each exercise. Use the additional information provided in order to help you make your choice. At this stage, you may identify more than one possible comparison group.
Step 3
Look at the detailed description(s) of your chosen norm group(s) in order to confirm your choice or make a final decision.
Step 4
Use the graphical display, if you wish, as a quick reference guide to see how your test results compare with the different groups. 
This chart shows two norm groups for the ABLE Helpline test. For each group, the chart shows the mean and one, two and three standard deviations above and below the mean. For example, look at Group 1 - the upper set of data on the chart. The mark in the centre of each bar shows the mean raw score for that group. 
For Group 1, you can see that the mean is approximately 12. The remainder of the bar shows the standard deviation, with marks at one and two standard deviations above and below the mean; the whole bar extends for three standard deviations above and below the mean. 
For Group 2, a raw score of 2 is approximately three standard deviations below the mean,whereas a raw score of 24 is around two standard deviations above the mean. Finally, the vertical dotted line shows the mean of all the different norm groups. In this example, it is approximately 14.
You can use the chart to see very quickly approximately how well an individual has performed against each of the groups. Find his or her raw score on the scale at the top or bottom of the chart, then look down or up to see how the score compares against each norm group.
Step 5
For a more exact normative score, a T-score and a percentile table is presented for each set of norm groups. Find the raw score you wish to look up, and then read across the table to the column for your chosen norm in order to find the corresponding T-score or percentile. Make a note on the ABLE booklet of the norm table used and the T-score and/or percentile. |