11 Plus Exams Forum

If I understand correctly, the pass mark for the Kent tests is about 120, 120 and 115 for the three papers.

Comparatively, the Bexley pass mark is an aggregate score of about 430 for the four papers. This would give an average of about 108 per paper.

Why are the Kent marks so much higher? Are there far fewer grammar places available? Roughly what percentage of entrants pass?

Thanks for any advice.

Sorry I don't know what % pass but this one has always puzzled me:
What happens when a candidate scores 140,140,114 and technically a fail.
Someone else gets 120,120,115 and passes. ????

The 140 140 114 appeals and gets in. The 120 120 115 gets straight in.

It seems a strange system that someone with such excellent results would need to appeal. Surely Kent could devise a fairer system.

Kent is currently looking for someone who achieves roughly in the top 25% of the population in each of three papers - non-verbal reasoning, verbal reasoning, and maths. You can't average the results in the way you have done in your original posts as the scores are standardised scores for each and every paper.

I think it is fair as it applies to all candidates, but it could be silly as they might miss out on selecting a mathematical genius who is useless at verbal reasoning. But for the general population it seems sensible as presumably you would find it hard to benefit from a grammar school education if you were not in the top 25% of the population for both verbal and non-verbal reasoning.

The paper I think they could scrap is the maths paper as if the other two papers are good tests of verbal and non-verbal reasoning they should fairly accurately select the top 25% of pupils without having to test pupil's knowledge of a particular maths syllabus.

I'm not really sure I quite understand exactly how the Kent and Bexley pass marks are set.

In simple terms is it correct that:

Bexley - in top 25% for the average score of the 4 papers.

Kent - in top 25% for each of the 3 papers individually.

after 12 years of working for them I have no idea how ANYTHING in the Kent Education department works!