I need help in understanding the scores in the Kent test

Eleven Plus (11+) in Kent

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ssbjham
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:35 pm

I need help in understanding the scores in the Kent test

Post by ssbjham »

Can anybody help me make sense of the scores in the Kent test.My son is in year 5 and has just done some CAF ? tests .The teachers had said to me previously that he would be well over the past mark but when the results came in I don't think that he was. I can't remember exactly which score was which but if memory serves they were 117 116 111 with NV being the lowest.I realise that he is still only in Year 5 but would 2 months make that much difference? This is my first time today so apologies if anything is incorrect. I've been looking at the information that the Judd School gives out and they say the maximum score is 140 and that and in 2006 420 was the most common score.That would mean that most got maximun score wouldn't it ?
I'm so confused, please can anyone help!! :shock:
kentmum1
Posts: 232
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:58 pm

Post by kentmum1 »

Firstly, the test scores that the schools give out always seem to alarm. My son made 1 error and was given a score of 129 - nothing like the real thing, when it would definitely have been 140. They even stressed that because he was an early birthday, 140 would not be possible - he ended up getting this in 2 papers, with plenty of errors! Beware of the inaccuracies of some schools who do not really understand the system themselves - not at our school anyway! They are not accurate in comparison to the standardisation of the real test. KCC stress to schools not to self-standardise these tests for that reason. From personal experience, I would now look at the number of incorrect answers. Usually 75%+ correct can give a standardised score of 140 on the day. You may find this info somewhere on the Judd website, although I'm not sure if this has been updated. I did read somewhere that about 50% of Judd's intake (althought this obviously varies) gets a score of 420 and the rest is only up to 8 marks less than this.
KenR
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Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

I suspect the problem comes from the different ways you can Age Standardise.

The most common approach is to Standardise against the actual candidate Exam population - this results with an average score of 100 (still with a max of 140) and the 87th percentile is about a score of 117.

But some LEAs use tests that have already been pre-standardised (by Trialing) against a national average population. In this case the average score is very much higher although the maximum Age Standardised score is still 140 - it's just that there are lots of scores of 140.

It's looks at though Kent use the latter approach - we can make this assumption as Judd School state that the average score is actually 120 not 100.

The problem is that I don't know how the CAF tests are standardised.

However, Judd state that this years minimum pass mark was 413 which is an average of just under 138 - so this is equivalent to a normal NFER cohort type standarisation score of about 118 or the 88th to 89th percentile. i.e circa 12% offers. Sounds like it's a tough school to get into.

Best thing to do is to try a few similar sample papers at home in strict test conditions and check the scores.
ssbjham
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:35 pm

Post by ssbjham »

Thank you for the replies so far.I think things are beginning to become a bit clearer.I wasn't necessarily thinking of Judd for my son but I was trying to gauge the marks by their standards.As I was brought up in the Midlands this is all new to me as it was either private or your local compAny more replies would be welcome.
punam
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:54 am

Post by punam »

hi there i hav a son who will be writing 11 plus in september. we live in west sussex .i was just wondering what is caf score my son didn;t have any of this in his school can somebody explain it to me ?///////// thanks in advance
kentmum1
Posts: 232
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:58 pm

Post by kentmum1 »

The CAT tests stand for cognitive ability tests. Not all primary schools use them - ours certainly don't. However, many secondary schools do this at the beginning of year 7 to assess their new intake. Our school uses the 11 practice papers sent by KCC. I would imagine that the CAT tests can certainly give an indicator of 11+ ability but I would not try and compare any scores from these with the real 11+ tests.
c'est la vie
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:28 am

Post by c'est la vie »

The results of this research indicate a correlation between test results at 10+; again at 13+ and further into GCSE's.

This suggests that a child performing at above average ability on them at 10 will maintain that level of ability into Year 8 and again in Year 11.

Have a read of the report - it's very informative - although somewhat biased since the researchers have a vested interest in promoting the tests as they are the manufacturers of the CAT's used extensively in English schools! :wink:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/cedar ... soning.pdf
punam
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:54 am

Post by punam »

hi again thanks for answering my previous question.i would appreciate if somebody could explain me how they calculate marks for judd? as there will be
80 VR
72 NVR
50 MATHS
what will be the time they will take for these papers. aalso if we aim to get 420 marks how many ques shd be correct,could somebody explain that to me. i tried to understand n i feel it says that it shd be 75% to get that kind of score.
thanks
kentmum1
Posts: 232
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:58 pm

Post by kentmum1 »

The 75% you are talking about is the basic raw score. So if a test paper has 80 questions and you get 20 questions wrong, you could be looking at a standardised score of 140. Although this looks like a large allowance of errors, these are usually uncharacteristic of the pupil on the day. From experience, most children making these mistakes are usually making far less errors in their practice papers and are simply caught up with nerves and time pressures on the day.

The time allowed is usually somewhere between 50-60 mins on each test. I think my son had 50 mins for V and NVR and 60 mins for the maths.
Bexley
Posts: 128
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:13 pm

Post by Bexley »

KenR wrote:I suspect the problem comes from the different ways you can Age Standardise.

The most common approach is to Standardise against the actual candidate Exam population - this results with an average score of 100 (still with a max of 140) and the 87th percentile is about a score of 117.
Hi Ken,

My daughter's scores were standardised as above and she scored over 117 in all 4 papers (VR, NVR, English, Maths). I know she did well as she was within the borough's top 180 scores.I was curious as to what, if any, significance there is to being above the 87th percentile .........just haven't seen it mentioned on here before.

Thanks

Bexley
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