Againts which?

[belly_ttt]

Tests at the age of seven provide a benchmark against which the child’s progress at school can be measured.

I don't get it at " againts which", anybody help me?

[MrPedantic]

Hello Belly,

The underlying structure of the phrase is:

1. X can be measured against Y.

When you measure e.g. a piece of material with a tape measure, you place the tape measure against (i.e. next to) the material.

The same applies in metaphors of measurement, as in your example.

("Benchmark" is a surveyor's term, with a quite complicated definition. But in popular usage, it tends to mean "something that serves as a measure".)

Best wishes,

MrP

[belly_ttt]

My friend explained to me that this sentence is in the Formal style, so if we change it into Informal style like this:

Tests at the age of seven provide a benchmark which the child’s progress at school can be measured againts.

Is it right?

When I checked in my dicitionary, it said that "measure againts " means "compare with", so I can infer the meaning of this sentence as "This test at the age of seven is used to compare with the child' progress at school"
Is my deduction right?

[MrPedantic]

Hello Belly,

Your revised version is fine, except that "againts" should be "against".

The sentence implies that a particular child's performance in the tests is compared against average performances in the tests.

Thus the tests provide a benchmark, but are not themselves the benchmark.

(I hope that makes it clearer!)

Best wishes,

MrP