% mark required to pass King Edward Exam

[Kay3]

Thank you to everyone for all the replies. They have been all been extremely helpful

[reeyah]

My DS also took the mock exam in Sh----- and got 62-67% ( can't rem exactly !). I was told he needs to pull up his socks for maths ( v low score in that ) but still had a good chance of getting through because he was above the average score in that particular sample of children. Must admit, 60 something didn't 'look good' to me .

[DIY Mum]

Being 'new' in Birmingham, I have not heard about this centre...are their 'mocks' a reliable reflection of the KEG's exam?

Could someone pm me with their details please?? Still have 2dc remaining to sit the exam .

[anxious_mother]

Hi Friends,
Why is it that the tutors in Sh..... are telling a different score to each parent or child ? For us they said he needs to get at least 90% in their exam so as to have a fair chance of getting into Camp Hill or any KE school and another parent also said similarly that a child had to get 85 to 95% in all 4 subjects in both the main exam and the mock exam. We felt that was a little bit difficult bcoz. we feel DS may not get a top score in all of the 4 subjects. Please can someone further clarify

[DIY Mum]

Perhaps, people are referring to different tuition centres in Shirley?

'Googling' for mock exams in Shirley, I came up with K _ _ L. But in a pm, someone mentioned T_ _or H_ _s e. Which one is it?

[UmSusu]

I didn't realise there was more than one but I was referring to the first one DIY mum mentioned - they had the mock yesterday and last Saturday. As far as I know, that was the last of them for this year. DIY mum, I have sent you a pm.

Anxious-mother, it might be that we are talking about different centres but if it is the same one, I think they vary the level of the exams throughout year and say the September one is the most difficult - perhaps they change the scores according to the exam sitting. Give them a call and ask them to clarify if you are worried.

Either way, I doubt that we ought to fret too much about their numbers no matter what they claim. All they can really highlight is any weaker areas to work on and even then it will not be something we don't already know. I think the most significant thing we learned from sitting the mock was that on the day I am going to be the largest contributor to DS's stress levels and I better have a strategy in place by then to avoid that- or else make sure DH goes with him on the day.

[koala]

I had two children who did these mock exams last year. I can't remember the % scores but they did not do well due to misreading questions, missing out pages and the exam being held at the end of the summer holiday where we had been away for most of it and had done very little work. When they came out of the exam, their attitude was "we have a lot of work to do Mum". It focussed them for both the Warks exam and the KE exam and they understood they had to work hard for the two deadlines. They were offered a place at King Edwards and also passed for KE Stratford and Alcester.

We used the K--L mock to understand what an exam would be like, to allow them to make mistakes but to learn from them for the real exam. In hindsight it was the best thing we did to get them focussed.

Finally, how do K--L know which of those who took their mock, were offered places at grammars? I didn't tell them and I am sure the schools haven't informed them.

Koala

[UmSusu]

Koala, I don't think they have a way of knowing unless parents tell them.

Like you said, I think the real value Of these or any other type of mock is that it gives a child a feel for the level and timings involved. Some parents prefer a more realistic 'mock' and enter DC for earlier exams with schools not necessarily on their list.

I also found out that there were some obvious things I could have said that would have alleviated DS's stress levels but they didn't occur to me at the time- instead I made him more anxious. Also, despite telling him to take a guess at the ones he missed when he is running out of time, he didn't bother and when he was faced with an nvr question that he hadn't seen before, he was completely thrown and he missed the entire section without even guessing. I think it taught him that he needs to improve his timings and to cope with the unexpected as best he can.

[DIY Mum]

Thank-you, Umsusu, that's really helpful. I'm interested in the mocks for dd2 next year...she works herself up and starts to panic in school tests so I dread to think what she'll be like in the actual KEGS' exam

[JaneEyre]

Thank-you, Umsusu, that's really helpful. I'm interested in the mocks for dd2 next year...she works herself up and starts to panic in school tests so I dread to think what she'll be like in the actual KEGS' exam

Don't worry DIY Mum,

She still have time to getting more mature!!

We have always worked regularly with my DS, anbd though I am fretting about his level in English and doing hardly any maths because of all the time we are devoting to English he is overconfident... which is bad, because he doesn't read the questions well enough and do mistakes he wouldn't do if he was reading properly
It seems that there is a balance to strike between being overconfident and being too worried.