state primary versus prep school
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It's interesting that in B/Ham they switched the KE Foundation Grammar Exams from NFER to the Univ of Durham Exam about 5 years ago.
Following the switch across it was noticable the B/Ham Independent Prep schools achieved significantly less success in getting Y6 pupils through the exams, although the pass rate for the Independent Senior Schools (such as KES, KEHS and Solihull) was about the same year on year.
Suggests that whilst Prep schools are good at preparing pupils for Independent Sector schools and traditional NFER type grammar 11+ exams via Study Skills lessons, they are less successful with the latest Univ of Durham's claimed "Tutor Proof" exams.
I should add at the same time, that many "enlightened" state sector primary heads around B/Ham and Worcestershire do offer optional Study Skills lessons for those pupils and parents that intend to enter their children for the KE Foundation Grammar exams. So maybe this has an effect as well.
Following the switch across it was noticable the B/Ham Independent Prep schools achieved significantly less success in getting Y6 pupils through the exams, although the pass rate for the Independent Senior Schools (such as KES, KEHS and Solihull) was about the same year on year.
Suggests that whilst Prep schools are good at preparing pupils for Independent Sector schools and traditional NFER type grammar 11+ exams via Study Skills lessons, they are less successful with the latest Univ of Durham's claimed "Tutor Proof" exams.
I should add at the same time, that many "enlightened" state sector primary heads around B/Ham and Worcestershire do offer optional Study Skills lessons for those pupils and parents that intend to enter their children for the KE Foundation Grammar exams. So maybe this has an effect as well.
Perhaps they tuned their methods perfectly to NFER tests over a very long time, and will take a few years to retune them for the Durham tests.KenR wrote:It's interesting that in B/Ham they switched the KE Foundation Grammar Exams from NFER to the Univ of Durham Exam about 5 years ago.
Following the switch across it was noticable the B/Ham Independent Prep schools achieved significantly less success in getting Y6 pupils through the exams, although the pass rate for the Independent Senior Schools (such as KES, KEHS and Solihull) was about the same year on year.
Suggests that whilst Prep schools are good at preparing pupils for Independent Sector schools and traditional NFER type grammar 11+ exams via Study Skills lessons, they are less successful with the latest Univ of Durham's claimed "Tutor Proof" exams.
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T.i.p.s.y
Hi Ken,
I was talking to someone with very close connections to Eton a few months ago about this Durham Uni computer assessment. He said that the year group accepted via this method were achieving significantly lower results than the other year groups who had undertaken a written assessment. I'm not sure what to make of this - have you heard anything similar?
I was talking to someone with very close connections to Eton a few months ago about this Durham Uni computer assessment. He said that the year group accepted via this method were achieving significantly lower results than the other year groups who had undertaken a written assessment. I'm not sure what to make of this - have you heard anything similar?
Hi WP and Tipsy
Tipsy, the Eton Exam is the CEM Digitial Test (using PCs), whereas the B/Ham KE Foundation (and the Warwickshire) 11+ exams are individual bespoke paper based developed for them by the Univ of Durham CEM unit.
There is an issue with Digitial Exam (acknowledged by Durham) in that it's slightly biased in favour of Boys(due to boys playing more computer games??), but not a problem for Eton I guess!!
Interestingly, Online Computer based testing is widely used throughout Industry for recruitment and certifications now with a lot of success. Some of these Digitial tests now use clever "Adaptive" Techniques. (Answer a question incorrectly and the script adapts to give you more of the same type of questions to search out the candidates weaknessess - very cunning!!)
Thankfully for parents "Adaptive" Techniques aren't used for 11+ exam just yet, but maybe in the future to search out Scholarship candidates????
This is certainly true, the new head at my son's prep school at the time was still using traditional "Study Skills" NFER lessons formats. Although Durham do claim the new bespoke tests to be Tutor Proof so no doubt they will have less success even if they adapt.Perhaps they tuned their methods perfectly to NFER tests over a very long time, and will take a few years to retune them for the Durham tests
Tipsy, the Eton Exam is the CEM Digitial Test (using PCs), whereas the B/Ham KE Foundation (and the Warwickshire) 11+ exams are individual bespoke paper based developed for them by the Univ of Durham CEM unit.
There is an issue with Digitial Exam (acknowledged by Durham) in that it's slightly biased in favour of Boys(due to boys playing more computer games??), but not a problem for Eton I guess!!
Interestingly, Online Computer based testing is widely used throughout Industry for recruitment and certifications now with a lot of success. Some of these Digitial tests now use clever "Adaptive" Techniques. (Answer a question incorrectly and the script adapts to give you more of the same type of questions to search out the candidates weaknessess - very cunning!!)
Thankfully for parents "Adaptive" Techniques aren't used for 11+ exam just yet, but maybe in the future to search out Scholarship candidates????
The CEM online test is adaptive - if you get a question right it adjusts the "degree of difficulty" up a little and when you get one wrong it asks slightly easier questions, and repeats the process until it's got a statistically sound assessment. I've been looking into it because our eldest may take a version of it.
Mike
Mike
Very interesting, would make it impossible to Age Standardise the results in this situation I would have thought?The CEM online test is adaptive - if you get a question right it adjusts the "degree of difficulty" up a little and when you get one wrong it asks slightly easier questions, and repeats the process until it's got a statistically sound assessment. I've been looking into it because our eldest may take a version of it.
