Daughter losing confidence in "The Tutors" papers.

Advice on 11 Plus VR papers and problems

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spamface
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Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:16 pm

Daughter losing confidence in "The Tutors" papers.

Post by spamface »

On Sunday my daughter took "The Tutors" 15 minute Level 3 Paper 11.
Question 18 has the correct answer OWWQZ. This answer does not appear on the answer sheet, which caused her to rethink for a bit before putting a question mark on the paper (she's a bright girl). The correct answer does however appear on the marking scheme which is a fat lot of good if you're taking the test.

I took the precaution of going over the other papers. Today I had to warn her of an error on paper 14 in the same set. Question 11 features possible answers (paragraph, autograph, prison), the actual anwer sheet offers the choices of (action, paragraph, chapter). There is only one possible match.

She had problems over another question (due to her own error) but thanks to the previous problems inevitably cast it aside as another failure to proof-read on the part of "The Tutors". Quite frankly I can't blame her.

How on earth could this have been allowed to happen? These papers have to be at least set out with 100% accuracy even if there is room for opinion on the possible answers. One of these mistakes has been pointed out on this forum a couple of weeks back but still this paper is on sale. I emailed the first problem on Sunday and at least expected an auto-reply today.

It's not good enough for the publishers just to put their feet up and collect the cash. Do your homework and take your own tests.
Sally-Anne
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Location: Buckinghamshire

Post by Sally-Anne »

Hi spamface

I can imagine that there might be the odd error in these papers - the error rate in new papers is around 5% on average.

I am very concerned that you seem to have found so many errors in the Tutors Level 3 set though? I personally debugged them (free of charge, as so many serivces are given to this forum) and I believed that we had found all the bugs, apart from one that appeared some months ago on the forum.

I will of course review your comments and make sure that the questions and answers are correct.

We never put our feet up, and we always take our own tests!

Sally-Anne
spamface
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Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:16 pm

Post by spamface »

5% errors? The pass level for 11-plus is around 85%. The "Method & Technique Course" frequently suggests we aim for 100% accuracy. That is the advice "The Tutors" give to 10 to 11-year olds. I can't see how 95% is good enough for a publisher.
There is absolutely no excuse for any error in any of the papers sold here. It's not rocket-science to make sure the possible answers on the paper match the answer-sheet and the answer-sheet corresponds to the marking scheme.

I would have given my error-checking service here free of charge, but sadly I've already paid.
Sally-Anne
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
Location: Buckinghamshire

Post by Sally-Anne »

spamface wrote:I would have given my error-checking service here free of charge, but sadly I've already paid.
To whom?
spamface
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Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:16 pm

Post by spamface »

Sally-Anne wrote:To whom?
I purchased the paper. My daughter and I have identified errors in it.
If these papers had been given away free I might have been more understanding.

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/epaper ... =f&c=1&p=6
Milla
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Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:25 pm

Post by Milla »

when you say "new papers" carry a 5% accuracy risk, Sally-Anne, are you referring just to papers such as this, or to the real tests the children actually take as well??

While I can see that it is irksome to find errors in the practice papers, it is far more worrying to think that the real tests carry such anomalies. Someone somewhere (Snowdrops???) said that in one of the tests the difference between (and here I'm guessing) places 15 and 80 (or something??!?) was 2 or 3 points (or something, not much anyway is the point I'm trying to reiterate).

Obviously, if a child was going to get wrong anyway a question that has been printed wrongly (say, a not a type which personally suited them, etc) then that's one thing, but for a child to have to waste time worrying over what must be the right answer because the one they (rightly) expected has not appeared on the test because of an adult setter's error, then it is quite another. Any thoughts??
arealfarmer
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Location: Gloster-born'n'bred !

Post by arealfarmer »

Milla said
Any thoughts??
How about - " that would be an utter disgrace and those responsible should be sacked " ?
Milla
Posts: 2556
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:25 pm

Post by Milla »

ah, yes, that's a good one!
Sally-Anne
Posts: 9235
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
Location: Buckinghamshire

Post by Sally-Anne »

Milla wrote:when you say "new papers" carry a 5% accuracy risk, Sally-Anne, are you referring just to papers such as this, or to the real tests the children actually take as well??
There are not normally errors in the real tests, especially NFER/GL Assessment papers, because they are intensively trialled before use.

That said, it is not unheard of for there to be an occasional error in tests when they are set by lesser bodies, or by the school itself. There is a current discussion on Herts about an error on the Dame Alice Owen paper last weekend. The children were told to ignore the question once it was spotted, and the school has announced that they will be marking the paper out of 49, instead of 50.

S-A
spamface
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Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:16 pm

Post by spamface »

I have now been refunded for the test and received an apology. The paper has been revised.
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