11 Plus Exams Forum

Well, the test is done and we await the dreaded results.

but how are the papers actually marked?
I know it isn't an average of the two papers, but how is it done?

I just had a look at the 2012 results table and I couldn't make head nor tail of it.

I thought you got a mark and a ranking.

eg, mark 220 rank 134 for Marling (I know that if you are in the top 120 you don't get ranked)

Any experts out there?

Don't take the following as acurate - I have no inside knowledge of the marking process.

Firstly each test is marked and a 'Raw score' allocated to the paper. That's purely the number of correct questions. Those two figures are then passed to all the schools that the parents had ticked the box for on the back of the application form.

Each school will then analyise the cohort of children who wanted the results shared with them by age. This gives some kind of a weighting (or multiplier) unique to that school, which is applied to each childs raw score depending upon the month they were born in (and hence level of academic maturity), to ensure that very roughly a child born in July gets the same weighted score as a child born in October if they are of equal intelligence (etc); in other words, to ensure that roughly 1/12th of each intake comes from each month.

Each school will have a different cohort - so children from the Forest may not tick for the Stroud schools due to distance, and likewise Fairford children not ticking for the Gloucester schools (though many parents will have done so out of pure inquisitiveness ). Therefore the weighted score for a child for one school can not be compared with the score they got for another school.

The weighted results are then put in some kind of a rank order and compared with the pass mark for that school. Each school will have many, many more children being deemed as 'selective' (ie pass) than they have places - every child with multiple ticks on the application form may have passed for several schools, but can only actually take up a place at one of them come September!

So you'll get a letter in a week or so with the results of the test, allowing you to fill in the secondary application form.

Note that the 'waiting list' is totally separate, and doesn't come into effect until after national allocation day (possibly even until after re-allocations).

thanks capers.

I keep seeing people say ''it doesn't matter if they didn't finish, it is the number they got right that counts''

but do they take raw score from paper one and raw score from paper 2 and add them together and that is the total raw score?

Or do they average the 2 papers?
Or do they take the highest of the 2 and use that?

not that it really matters, I am just curious

(not trying to kill time till friday, no not me, not at all )
(you wouldn't think I am actually supposed to be working!)

Hi I have a copy of my DS's answer scores from last year as we went to appeal. ( which was successful ) It appears they give a raw score for each paper which will be the number of correct answers out of 85 for the first paper and 80 for the second paper. These scores then have some sort of age correcting adjustment. I would think they line up all the age corrected scores into rank order and then allocate a standardised score from the rank position on the line up to a top score of 140.

It looks like an individual SAS is given for each paper and then for Crypt an average of the 2 SAS is given as a score so a qualifying score would be from 107.5 - 140.
For other schools the 2 SAS are added together so you get a qualifying score of 210 - 280.
I think that is how it works

that's interesting, they are actually more straightforward than I thought then.

I have always wondered why crypts entrance was 100 and something and everyone else is 200 and something.

Just being nosey, what were you appealing on?

It was a non-qualification and over subscription appeal - all very stressful. Glad its all over is all I can say and no more children to put through the process