Page 1 of 4

Pass Marks?

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:36 pm
by reddebs
Does anyone know the pass marks for results out today?
red-debs

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:54 pm
by Grumpy Old Man
360 - minimum 114 in one?

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:20 pm
by 2stressed
Yes that is what our headteacher has just said to us - minimum 114 in any paper but 360 combined score therefore average of 120

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:40 pm
by dadofkent
No real change from previous years. In fact the pass, sorry selection, mark is now higher, because last year it was possible to pass with 120, 120, 115 ie a cumulative score of 355.

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:48 pm
by Pushymuvva
I am confused as to why the pass mark is now higher when they have brought it forward by a whole term effectively making it harder - this seems particularly unfair on children like my son who was only just 10 when he took it - ie. lacking a lot of mental maturity .

He got 113 maths
119 NVR
124 VR

Would anyone else go through the appeal process based on these marks?
I'd be interested to hear your views.

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:55 pm
by reddebs
Hi Pushymuvva
I would appeal on the results you posted as the average is over 118, before hand though make sure that the school you are aiming for is not super selective (only takes top marks) as this could hinder the process.
reddebs

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:03 pm
by tired_dad_2008
The pass mark is higher because there are more borderline kids taking the test this year, some of whom would not have taken it at all before but would have scored a pass if they had taken it. The score number (ie 360) doesn't relate directly to the same number last year in terms of number of questions you need to get right to achieve that score. Also your child is compared against other children of the same age and then the standardisation is done so that each age group achieves the same score profile as another age group - the underlying assumption being that the intelligence profile is evenly distributed across the months, which will be increasingly true as your sample size (number of entrants) gets larger.

EDIT: I read on Peter Read's site that there were 250 more children passing the Kent test this year than last year. I guess this must mean that there are more children in this year's Yr6 in total than last.

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:18 pm
by dadofkent
Shouldn't actually affect the pass mark though. The pass mark will be set, albeit somewhat arbitarily, at 120 (per age group), at the appropriate level to give the required number off successful pupils.

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:26 pm
by MGSMUM
Don't forget last year's 'pass' mark wasn't a cumulative score. So, whilst it may appear that the pass mark was 355 last year, that's looking at it on a cumulative basis. It was very easy to have well over this as a total mark, and still not 'pass' (I should know, we were there through the whole hideous process! - cumulative of 365, but maths was 114, not 115, so my son didn't 'pass')

Kent scores

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:44 pm
by Stripyem
We got results yesterday to say we passed. I asked the school for scores and was told 140, 140, 140. Does anyone know what the max you could get is? My DD (I think that is what I am meant to put) also passed Bexley with 262 which means she is in the top 180 as we are out of Borough. Our top choice is Newstead Wood but she still has to sit the test for that in Nov - I wonder how it compares to Kent and Bexley in terms of difficulty?