Age related criteria for 11+ examination

[Sandy Rhodes]

My son James sat an 11+ examination recently and was examined in verbal reasoning, English composition & comprehension and Maths. He failed by a small margin. He has a July birthday. Are you aware of any research that has shown that boys are likely to do less well in these examinations the younger they are in the year group? Is it proven anywhere that they perform much better towards the tail end of year 6 in English and Maths? If you can advise, it will be invaluable information for an appeal.

Many thanks

[KenR]

Hi Sandy,

The age factor is well known and recorded, but that is the reason for the Age Standardisation process for 11+ which is supposed to take account of this.

For actual detailed publishsed material take a look at the 2006 Age Standardised scores and Tables for the Key Stage 2 SATS. This give the actual scores by age band to show the typical differences

http://www.qca.org.uk/downloads/qca-06- ... eshold.pdf

As an example, For a level 5 pass scores in Written Maths(112) an early birthday child would have to have a raw score of 69 out of 80 correct whereas a late birthday child would only have to achieve 61 out of 80 correct.

Note: The actual Standardisation process varies from exam to exam and also year to year. The above is an example of the typical differences.

Hope this helps.

[Y]

Hi KenR

Are you sure about this bit, with regard to Year 6 SATS:

"As an example, For a level 5 pass scores in Written Maths(112) an early birthday child would have to have a raw score of 69 out of 80 correct whereas a late birthday child would only have to achieve 61 out of 80 correct."

The document you mention states: "Age standardised scores do not affect the pupil’s test levels." I was told by a teacher last year that SATS levels were not age standardised.

Y

[KenR]

Hi Y

Year 6 SATS are definitely Age Standardised. The above QCA document actually says so, there is a whole section which explains why they age standardise.

The reason for the comment

"Age standardised scores do not affect the pupil’s test levels."

is just a reference to the fact that they take it into account when setting the level.

If you print out the document you will notice that the Age Standardisation tables have diagional greyed out areas (where the grey band age standardised scores increas slightly with age).

If you print of the document and take it to the teacher they will be able to see that the information they gave you last year was incorrect.

[Guest]

My son James sat an 11+ examination recently and was examined in verbal reasoning, English composition & comprehension and Maths. He failed by a small margin. He has a July birthday. Are you aware of any research that has shown that boys are likely to do less well in these examinations the younger they are in the year group? Is it proven anywhere that they perform much better towards the tail end of year 6 in English and Maths? If you can advise, it will be invaluable information for an appeal.

Many thanks

Ken, thanks for your suggestion to look up age standardised scoring. I am waiting to hear from the school whether age criteria were applied across the board or just in certain subjects. Do you happen to know if there is any research anywhere that indicates that boys become much more proficient in maths and English towards the end of year 6? Presumably there must be some somewhere for Key Stage 2 to take account of age in the first place - they must have based their decision to do this on something! Sandy

[Bournemouth]

Sandy,

I would take a good dig around Google to find what you are looking for. My son is July birthday but luckily his school uses the Nfer tests and scores are standardised in Maths and VR but not in the essay but I know this is not the case in all areas. They need to know that the child can write quickly, clearly and consisely so that they keep up in class. There is a big difference, I believe, in what a child can produce at the beginning of year 6 to the end. For this reason we did a lot of practice in getting as far down the page as he could in 30 minutes. Really tough on the young ones I think.
I did find a study that said the majority of children in grammars are from the older half of the year, which is unfortunate. I can't remember what websites I found. Try Nfer Nelson or government sites.

[Bournemouth]

I don't know whether there is anything in here:-

http://www.bris.ac.uk/cmpo/workingpaper ... rammar.pdf

[Guest55]

Ken R,

The level your child gets on the KS2 test is not age standardised - QCA does have tables to allow such standardising but they are not used to allocate levels.

Levels are determined by the total of the marks on the papers.

[KenR]

Hi Guest55,

You are quite correct, the scores are Age Standardised but the levels are not. I hadn't looked at the chart for quite a while, the five shaded bands, which do take account of age standardisation, relate to a comparision with the national population - top 5th, next 5th etc.

Levels are related to a raw score band, for maths 78-100 being level 5 etc.

Apologies for the misleading information

[Guest]

Many thanks to Guest in Bournemouth. I have looked at the web site you suggested. Are you able, by any chance to recall the article you were reading that said that more pupils attend grammar schools who have September to February birthdays than pupils who have March to August birthdays. That would be really helpful if you could.

Sandy