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FAO Mike Edwards, or anyone who knows what top score is

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:56 pm
by Guestt
Hi Mike, or anyone who can help
have just been reading the thread on results, and am a bit confused about the pass marks etc.
121 and 141 keeps being mentioned but the Wirral pass mark was 236

I have just been told today that the maximum marks are 282, 141 for each paper.

have you any ideas what the actual top marks are?
My daughter scored 141 and 136, and as she was 11 last oct she must have had marks deducted for that and i cant see how on earth she would score 277 out of 282

No-one seems to be sure about any of these marks, and I'd be interested to know what percentage 277 is.
Cheers

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 9:48 am
by Guest
well I spoke to the head last night and apparantly, yes each paper was marked out of 141 :shock:
So she got 100% on her first paper!
overall she got 98%.
I am in shock! I knew she was clever but 11 plus is a different scenario, and she had no tuiton.
she got 96% in the other grammar school exam she took, which was our first choice school.

Well chuffed!

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:02 pm
by Mel
In Bucks they do two papers - max being 141 per paper.
They then mark each paper, but bin the lowest mark.
The higher mark is your final result.
ie paper 1 you could get 114
paper 2 you could get 123 - so this means you have passed, as 121 is the pass and 141 is the highest mark you can get.

Mel

PS You do get to know both marks on both papers

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:15 pm
by Guest
Wow! That's a strange system.
In Wirral they mark both papers and add them together, although apparently they do some sort of standardisation which I don't understand. :roll: She is an October birthday so not sure how it works.
She got 141 on paper 1 and 136 on paper 2

Thanks very much Mel

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:28 pm
by patricia
Dear Guest

If you are not given the raw score with your marks, some areas do, then you cannot work out the exact %. 141 is the top mark, but does not necessarily mean 100% it's the old standardisation thing again. lots of factors ages , average [ for your specific area or national ] border zones, comfort zones, the list goes on. There is no doubt your child has performed well.

Dear Mel and Guest

Although Bucks only take into consideration the top mark of two tests , used to be the average of top 2 out of 3, apparently Bucks asked Nfer if this would make any difference to the outcome. History ' apparently' shows that only 12 more children would pass under the new system. Interesting

Patricia

Top Marks

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:00 pm
by GuestGlos
I am not sure its quite as simple as that. In the Glos exams, which are also NFER, the first exam is relatively easy and so the scores tended to be lower. The second paper was much more difficult. The top score of someone who left out at least 8 questions out of 85 was 147. Our son got 141 on the second paper and probably got around 70 out of 85.

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:26 pm
by patricia
Dear GuestGlos

Where do you get you information from? Are you told that the first test is easier? Are you told the raw scores?

Often children will say one was easier than the other, but in reality most NFER tests are rigorously tested to ensure equal difficulty, sometimes its just something simple for example, certain children prefer codes to maths and therefore would seem to be easier, depending on the types in that particular test.

In addition when the scores are standardised all apparent difficulties are ironed out.

Patricia

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:43 pm
by Mel
Patricia

In Bucks aren't we told that the papers are of equal content? Of course some children will find one easier than the other, but then the other half will say they found the other paper harder.

I believe also in Bucks there is a 'control group' of children who take the test, to see how difficult it is - quite how it works I don't know - but I'm sure I read it somewhere. Perhaps Patricia or Etienne could enlighten me?

Mel

PS I remember that there used to be 3 papers in Bucks - was it scrapped a couple of years ago? Interesting as friend of mine has a daughter who is not the brightest of children and she got 96 and 121 this year (ie a pass) - would be interesting to see how she would have fared under the old system.

Also apart from a handful of people, most people I know who passed failed one paper and passed the other!!!! Again - how would they have fared 2 years ago?

Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 12:17 am
by patricia
Dear Mel

The process of of 'equating' is used to check difficulty from year to year. see...

http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/schools/docum ... 1_plus.pdf

Section C 14

Re the change from the average of two out of 3 to the best of 2...see..

http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/cabinet_paper ... _item6.pdf

Section B 6/7 Impact of changes.

Patrica