Full marks anyone?

[frangipani]

Ladymuck the number of questions were the same as always:
80 VR
72 NVR
50 Maths

Yes I know that. But given the standardisation, getting a question wrong on VR has less impact on the total score than getting one wrong on maths. And for each question you get wrong on maths, it drops your standardised score by 2-3 points, which matters quite a lot at the superselective boundaries!

Oh I see. Sorry, I misunderstood

[rosered100]

I didn't think that there were anymore open days at Skinners from the information on the website. If there are could you post details as I am keen to go along again

Same here - I phoned but they said no. I thought as Judd had put another one on post-results that Skinners might too but no such luck. Maybe if enough people phone & ask they might relent & do a small tour

[DaddyOh]

...
It's not true that the same amount will get the top score each year. The standardisation is done using a normal distribution at the 50th and 25th percentiles. For various reason the distribution in Kent is not a normal distribution (it has fat tails) so a small variation in those fat tails could conceivably make a large difference to the number of 'full marks' each year.
...
DaddyOh

Looks like the 'fat tail' has indeed varied quite a lot this year!

Link Removed

Good news for those thinking about super-selectives I guess.



DaddyOh

[TestingTimes]

I thought this would be the case, I should get the results of a FOI request within a week or so which will break these figures down into boys and girls scores and whether they were in or out of county. I've asked for information on scores down to 400.

[westkent]

I'm afraid I don't understand the "fat tail" reference.

Have KCC moved the goalposts?

My ds who last year would have got 423, has this year got 418. I took that to mean that there must have been some really high marks this year but maybe that was not the case.

More confused than ever!

[Ladymuck]

I thought this would be the case, I should get the results of a FOI request within a week or so which will break these figures down into boys and girls scores and whether they were in or out of county. I've asked for information on scores down to 400.

Would you mind posting these once you have them please?! Would be intrigued to see them.

[TestingTimes]

Yes, they will be up as soon as I have them, which should be before November 22nd.

[DaddyOh]

I'm afraid I don't understand the "fat tail" reference.
...

Fat tails is just a fancy way of saying that in Kent more children get top marks than you would expect if they followed a normal distribution (bell curve) so the children in Kent don't fit into a bell curve.


I'd like to say it's because we have such clever children but I guess it's more to do with the fact that they practice for the 11+.


DaddyOh

[TestingTimes]

I have all the information from my FOI request now but I can't work out how to post it without typing it all out again.

I'll play around with it and try to get it up later tonight but if anyone knows any tricks for copy and pasting from Excel Please let me know!

[Bobmumof3]

Intrigued to find out! Hope you find a way testing times