Regional variation in exam level and academic standard ?

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KenR

Standardised Scores B/Ham KE

Post by KenR »

Following on from my previous posting, you might be interested to know that following my FOI letter to the KE Grammar School Foundation they have supplied full details of the Standardised Scores, Raw Scores and Age profiles for the Sep't 2005 Entry (Exam held in Nov 2004).

I should add that they did point out that as a Charitable Trust they were not covered by the FOI Act, however they kindly send me the full details.

There are several pages of information which will probably take me some time to digest and analyse. At first sight, given that competition is intense in B/Ham as there are very few Grammar Schools, I was quite surprised that the Pass Standardised scores were not higher. In the Tests, there are 3 sections(VR, Numerical, & NVR) that are Standardised across 2 papers, and the scores added together to get a Pass Mark. For the 6 Grammar Schools in the Foundation the Standardisation Pass Mark ranged from 317 to 347. This equates to a highest Average Standardised Score across 3 sections of 116.

You may recall that the KE Foundation uses The Univ of Durham Curriculum Centre to set the tests not the typical NFER paper. They are under much more intense time pressure. The raw pass scores at my son's age (10.85 years) was also much lower than for the usual NFER type of VR and NVR paper. In the numerical sections this was only 56% (46/82). Much higher for VR and NVR.

Very Interesting reading.
forumadmin
Site Admin
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FOI Data

Post by forumadmin »

KenR, Mike E, Patrica, Dan et al.

If you want to copy the information you and others are receiving to us at Eleven Plus Exams we would be happy to summarise the statistics and tabulate the results side by side for each region so that we can draw national inferences; posting all results on the website.

ForumAdmin
patricia
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Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear KenR

If the schools are using the University of Durham Curriculum Centre, I believe they made the move because the children were being highly tutored for NFER, supposedly you 'cannot' tutor for the DCC tests. Then, surely the average is bound to be lower, making the pass lower. [ Am I being thick/too simplistic?]

Patricia
Last edited by patricia on Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Guest

Post by Guest »

Ken

My daughter has been telling me recently how difficult the test at KE really was. She said that in some sections she really didn't know what they were asking her to do and with the intense time pressure, felt that she didn't do herself justice. She is a very clever girl with a level 5 in Maths and English at Easter in year 5, so if she found it difficult, I am sure that it was. Hence, I am not surprised at the low pass mark. I just wanted to say how much your post has put my mind at rest. I was worrying that with pass marks of 93 being quoted - she felt that there was no way she had got 93%, despite being able to get 96% in NFER papers, etc.

Thank you very much Ken - I shall stop worrying at 2 am now and just keep my fingers crossed.
Catherine
Posts: 1348
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2005 4:47 pm
Location: Berks,Bucks

Post by Catherine »

Hello Patricia/ForumAdmin,

I am quite interested in these statistics and was going to ask for information to Bucks CC and Slough under the FOI now that I am back from my Christmas hols. This is what I was going to ask for:

Total number of applicants
Pass rate for the county
Pass rate for all state schools
Pass rate all independent schools
Pass rate for each school (independent or not) attended by a child taking the exam
The number/percentage of standardised scores at each level
The raw scores corresponding to each standardised score (e.g.121 ST corresponds to 65 to 70 raw score)

I would ask for data from 2004 and 2005 if available.

I would be more than happy to add to this list if you have any other suggestion.


Regards

Catherine
KenR

Regional Variation....KenR to Patricia

Post by KenR »

Hi Patricia,

If you look at the figures I quoted in my post for my child's Age profile 10.85 years, you will see that the raw scores do indeed seem to be significantly lower than for other LEAs using the tradional NFER 11+ test route.

When these are converted to a Standardised Score however the results are similar to other LEA results, this is what you would expect. The average Standardised Score in each section required is about 116 which I think is about the 86th percentile.

To other Guest posters, please remember that these are the results for the 2004 11+ Exam, not the 2005 Exam. The results, and particularly the Standardisation, can vary from year to year, although I doubt in practice if they will be signififcantly different (assuming the exam was similar - which is was I believe).

Interestingly, I believe the inflated figure of 93%, which has been suggested as the pass mark, was probably the upper end of the range for the old NFER Exam tests. Those exams were last used 4 years ago.
Catherine
Posts: 1348
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2005 4:47 pm
Location: Berks,Bucks

Post by Catherine »

I have sent my request under FOI to both Slough and Bucks.
I must say, it's surprisingly easy. You just need to fill in their online form and its' done. Let's see what comes out of this.
Guest

Post by Guest »

This is all really interesting stuff here! Do you all think that the mean would be 100, or do they have a higher mean. I know that in most IQ tests the mean is 100 with SDs at 15 point intervals. Are the entrance tests the same? So if a child scores 118 as a standardised score in a standard NFER test, would this be directly comparable with an entrance test? The tests are supposed to be scientifically constructed, so if my child scores 125 standardised score on an NFER test, they should get into grammar, despite the entrance tests for KE in Brum being written by someone else. Am I right or seriously misguided!!
KenR

Standardised Scores

Post by KenR »

The Standardised Scores are by definition a normal distribution - this means that the mean or 50th percentile is always 100. As with all Educational the Standard Deviation (SD) is 15 points.

So if you child was scoring about 118 as a Standardised Score in an NFER Test that would be about the 87% percentile.

There are two problems however:-

How do you know your child is scoring a standardised score of 118 on a particular test - this does vary by test and candidates, and

The conversion of raw marks to standardised scores for a particular Grammar School will vary with Age profile - the difference can often be quite significant.

For example, in the Birmingham KE VR Tests in 2004 , to achieve a Standardised Score of 118 a child aged 11.18 years on the exam day would have to achieve score 71/100, whereas a child who was only 10.22 years would only have to score 65/100. Quite a difference.

You should also note that the raw 'pass' scores are significantly lower than the previous NFER tests (and most of those used in other Grammar Schools around the country).

How do you know that your child is scoring 125 in NFER? You can only guess. I assume that your child is scoring 90%+ in practice papers?? If they are scoring consistently highly in NFER tests then there is a good chance they will do well in the new style KE tests, unless the change in format completely thows them.
Guest

Post by Guest »

You are right, of course, I am only guessing her score - she is an August baby and scores about 85% on Maths, 95% on VR and NVR( these are NFER papers I am talking about ). I have no real idea what this would equate to in terms of standardised scores, but guess that it is quite high. I always felt that she was disadvantqaged because of her very young age - some children were head and shoulders taller than her - but I am very glad that they age standardised the tests. Have to wait and see. Thanks for the info it is great.
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