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Re: Latymer

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 8:05 am
by NorthLondonMum
My recollection is that about 550 were invited to sit the second round last year.

Re: Latymer

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 9:09 pm
by nat
The question is: would we know how many children are invited? We'll all get a letter either inviting our DC or not. But how do we check how many inviting letters are sent? :?:

Re: Latymer

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 9:32 pm
by chicko-mum
I suppose they might tell you if your DC goes through, and you asked? I don't recall 500 ever being said by anyone at Latymer, only ever heard 'around 500'. The website says children 'who achieve the required level on the NVR Test'. Could you appeal on that basis?

Re: Latymer

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:20 am
by mumbojumbo
It doesn't really matter whether there are 500 or twenty thousand on the list- all that matters is whether your DC is one of them. :wink:

Re: Latymer

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:03 am
by 2Girlsmum
I beg to differ......if there are 500 she had about a 50% chance factoring in the people who put Latymer 2nd choice and the waiting list. If there are 20,000 then her chances are about 1/80 or 1.25% (the maths lessons aren't going to waste!)

Re: Latymer

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:00 pm
by mumbojumbo
My point was that unless your DC is amongst them, the number of candidates on the list is academic, so there's really nothing to be gained by knowing the exact figure. All you can do is speculate about probabilities, but it's just that - speculation.

Re: Latymer

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:42 pm
by 2Girlsmum
Hi Mumbojumbo,

Latymer is in North London where there are 4 grammar schools (1 boys, 2 girls and Latymer which is mixed) for a population of about 5 million, and the ratio of applicants to places is 1/10 to 1/14 (apart from St Michael's where the applicants must be baptised, had Holy Communion and attend mass weekly for at least a year and the ratio is 1/4 due to the religious criteria). Most parents choose not to follow the grammar school route as the chances are very small of gaining a place. My dentist is sending her children to the local (underperforming) school as she doesn't want to push them and possibly fail at such a young age. MANY people take that choice here. Most bright children in North London don't attempt the 11+.

The reason it matters (to me anyway) if the number is 500 is because then the chances have leapt from 1/12 to 1/2 within a few weeks wait. It isn't a place, but a better chance at one. In London (unlike most of the UK) we have no idea how dc's have done until March 1st which is a long time to wait with slim odds. I appreciate the statistics (I scored 98% in my 'O' level Statistics many moons ago!) but it feels good to be shortlisted. My dd is VVGC at NVR and was scoring between 57 and 60/60 on the week of the test, but obviously the test is an unknown. The children in the top 500 have probably scored over 75/80 as the test was deliberately easy. This score isn't just standardised over the 1700 applicants for Latymer in round 1, but the 500 NVR scores are then re-standardised in round 2, so a child could score 75/80 in round 1 and be given a standardised score of 95/141! THEN a couple of points become 30-40 points. She also learns if her NVR is good enough for round 2 a couple of days before the test (NVR, VR, English and Maths in one day!) at her 1st choice school, and if she has failed round 1 will be sitting the most important exams feeling a failure.

I had a quick look at your profile and see that you live in Devon where there are 9 Grammar schools for a population of 1 million, so the chance of a place is much higher - the equivalent of 45 in North London!! We subsequently have a different outlook here as it's a much bigger challenge!!! I wish it wasn't so, but sadly it is:(

The Numbers Game in London

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:08 pm
by Daogroupie
I think it is hard for anyone outside London to appreciate the numbers game that we face. City of London School for Girls have just announced that they are full for sitting the exam on Friday 14th January. So even if you have already paid to apply you will now have to pay to apply to another school so you can actually sit the Group Two exam elsewhere. So even if you have a spare 12k a year to pay for your dc to go to school you still have to get in and actually the first hurdle is booking yourself a seat and table to even have a chance to sit the exam! DG

Re: Latymer

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 5:13 pm
by chicko-mum
I 'd also add that having dipped in and out of threads I get the idea that some areas have a pass mark for the 11+. Then, if you score higher than this, entry to GS is determined by distance to school etc (I may have got this totally wrong). At Latymer there is no pass mark. It's the top performers who will be offered the places. Although Latymer has a catchment area in reality it covers a substantial chunk of London and DAO's catchment is not small either. HBS has no catchment at all and I don't know about St Michael's.
For parents of DCs sitting these tests it's not whether their DC did well enough to pass, but whether they did better than x number of children a) to even get through to round 2 and b) to rank high enough in the final list. I agree with 2Girlsmum, although it doesn't alter the results - or reduce the stress levels while we wait for 2nd March :roll: - it's good to know whether the 160 academic places are spread over 500 or 550 hopefuls in round 2. We snatch at these little rays of hope while we wait... :?

Re: Latymer

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:43 pm
by Chilled
2Girlsmum

Take heart. If NVR is one of your daughter's strengths then she may very well get through to the 2nd round of Latymer, just because the children thought the exam was easy does not mean that loads of children will get very high scores. NVR is definitely not one of my son's strengths, he is much better at VR and maths. He took the Latymer exam last year and thought the NVR was very easy compared to some of the papers he had done at home. A friend of his who did the exam also thought that it was very easy. However, neither child made it through to the 2nd round. The pass mark for the 2nd round was 107 last year and my son got 106, his friend got around the 100 mark.

Even if she doesn't make it through to the 2nd round, children are often more resilient than you think and, remember, her reaction may well depend on how you react to the bad news. My DS didn't seem at all phased by not getting through to Latymer 2nd round, it may have even spurred him on to try even harder in his remaining exams as one more correct answer and he would have been through.

Fortunately, on allocation day in March he got offered his 1st choice school based on his exam performance.

Good luck to you and your DD with both the Latymer result and any other exams she is taking.