2014 exam / 2105 admissions

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Okanagan
Posts: 1706
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:20 pm
Location: Warwickshire

2014 exam / 2105 admissions

Post by Okanagan »

Looking way ahead, it seems that there may be a change to the way the Warwickshire exam is scored for 2014 (for places in 2015 - current year 4 children).
um (on the Birmingham section) wrote:From next year, it is understood that all three consortia will join together with one CEM examination on the same date. This is most likely to be the first Saturday in September.
If this is the case it means that same exam will be used for Warwickshire as for the the selective schools in Birmingham and Walsall. It will still be a CEM exam, and the format of the exam itself isn't likely to change, but the way it is scored might do. Currently Birmingham results are standardised to get two scores on English/VR and NVR/Numerical, whereas Warwickshire and Walsall have three elements with English/VR, NVR and Numerical being scored seperately. If Warwickshire adopts the Birmingham model it will shift the emphasis even more towards candidates who are strong in English as that will then account for half of the standardised score, rather than one third as it is now.

Good news if you've got a child who excels at English, not so good if they're more mathematically inclined.
serendippyty
Posts: 352
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2009 8:23 pm

Re: 2014 exam / 2105 admissions

Post by serendippyty »

Oh that's interesting... shame my year 4 daughter is mathematically stronger!
mike1880
Posts: 2563
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:51 pm

Re: 2014 exam / 2105 admissions

Post by mike1880 »

It won't make any difference. Daughter, who is exceptionally strong in English and turned out to be surprisingly weak in VR, scored identically in Warks and Bham (235 Bham, 353 Warks, iirc).
kongo1959
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 11:17 am

Re: 2014 exam / 2105 admissions

Post by kongo1959 »

My dd is stronger in English than Maths but scored 207 in Birmingham and 235 in Warwickshire.

Hearing this I can only put that down to nerves as she did the Birmingham test a week earlier!
MSD
Posts: 1731
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:08 pm

Re: 2014 exam / 2105 admissions

Post by MSD »

mike1880 wrote:It won't make any difference. Daughter, who is exceptionally strong in English and turned out to be surprisingly weak in VR, scored identically in Warks and Bham (235 Bham, 353 Warks, iirc).
Our experience was slightly different for the test taken last year. Son scored 235 (VR - 111, Maths/NVR - 124) in Birmingham test but scored 371 (VR - 117, Maths - 134, NVR - 125) in the Walsall QM test which would equate to around 248 in Bham.

English has always been his weaker subject and that most certainly put him at a disadvantage due to the 50% weightage criterion used in Bham.

Having the same test doesn't necessarily mean they have to use the same marking scheme across regions. Once they have the raw score for each subject area it would quite simple to work out the weighted standardised score based on each regions requirements.

MSD
KenR
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Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: 2014 exam / 2105 admissions

Post by KenR »

Having the same test doesn't necessarily mean they have to use the same marking scheme across regions. Once they have the raw score for each subject area it would quite simple to work out the weighted standardised score based on each regions requirements.
I'm not sure that would be practical

Children applying to grammars in both B/Ham and Warwickshire would get 2 scores - respective Warwickshire and a B/Ham age standardised score based on the different standardisation methods. The percentile score could be quite different in each case which would confuse parents. A cihild might pass for Warwickshire with a high score but fail for one of the B/Ham KE grammars with a lower score based on a different standardisation. A great argument at appeal!

You also can't break down the cohort into 2 camps because children can apply to schools in both regions - also the age standisation process improves with an increased cohort sample so the bigger the cohort the more consistent the process.

T hink they will have to agree a single consistent approach
MSD
Posts: 1731
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:08 pm

Re: 2014 exam / 2105 admissions

Post by MSD »

Agreed kenR!

Having one paper will at least stop CEM from recycling the same past papers across the regions. I personally won't be happy to pay £40,000 for a recycled paper :)

MSD
mike1880
Posts: 2563
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:51 pm

Re: 2014 exam / 2105 admissions

Post by mike1880 »

The Gloucs GS have always standardised separately; a child can get two or more different scores for the same exam due to different standardisation cohorts. So it can be done. But if the whole point of the exercise is to save money it seems unlikely that they would bother.
magwich2
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Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:33 pm

Re: 2014 exam / 2105 admissions

Post by magwich2 »

In the CEM exam in warwickshire each of the 3 sections is standardised separately and the amount of marks awarded differs quite considerably across the 3 sections
mitasol
Posts: 2755
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:59 am

Re: 2014 exam / 2105 admissions

Post by mitasol »

Difficult to stand against Ken and Mike but I think I would take a small wager on them standardising the two areas separately.

It looks like the GSHA have big plans for large scale CEM tests, which could be weighted to match the local context. The financial benefits of returning to a single 11+ test that can be locally standardised must be quite compelling. http://www.tbgs.co.uk/Sixth-Form/gsha_2012.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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