Viewing test papers & Kent appeal

[Ment2B_2000]

Hi there,

I am wondering if anyone has viewed their child's actual 11+ test papers and if so how did you go about accessing it?

We are in the East Kent area.

Thanks in advance

[twinkles]

I viewed my DS's papers two years ago.

I contacted KCC and arranged to go and see them at Maidstone. I am not sure if you are allowed to do this anymore though.

Which school(s) are you appealing too, if you don't mind me asking?

PM if you would prefer.

[Ment2B_2000]

Thanks twinkles, I have PM'd you

[T12ACY]

Hi, I too got to view DS's test papers 2 years ago but do know that the LA have changed their standing since then. You can phone the admissions office I think and discuss with them. They have tried to discourage the practice, unsurprising given they have lots and lots of parents wanting to do this and when we went was told they regularly have block appointments which several parents would attend.

Good luck

[Etienne]

Just to add that you have no legal right to see the papers. Anything KCC have been willing to do is entirely at their discretion.

[capers123]

Just to add that you have no legal right to see the papers. Anything KCC have been willing to do is entirely at their discretion.

In Gloucestershire the Admissions Authorities will produce them at the appeal if requested (they're usually in the file just in case either the panel or parents ask). However, as they're just multiple choice answersheets, not a lot can be gleened from them and the question papers are never produced. All the AA's here always manually re-mark each paper if there's an appeal just to rule out any machine mis-readings, but it's very rare (1 in all the time I've heard appeals) that an error is actually found (and in that case, we didn't hear the appeal as a place was immediately offered); even then it could go either way so the child ends up with less marks!

[T12ACY]

It's a good point about remarking, the chance of a lower mark that is.

I was one of the rare ones where DS's paper in VR gave a revised score (upwardly) by hand marking, although it was only a single question it gave 2 points higher in his standardised score. The LA are clear to state that all papers are marked in the same way so others may have equally had the odd question missed by the machine All papers viewed by parents are currently hand marked, not sure if that extends to all appeals though if you don't want to see them prior to the hearing.

We also were able to view the questions at that time and I think this was something that KCC withdrew last year, as capers said there is no legal obligation for them to let you even see the multiple choice sheets and to be honest they now don't offer much information as it's essentially a list of boxes.....

[Ment2B_2000]

Hi All,

Thank you for the responses.

We feel we have a relatively solid case thus far and will be including some additional information which leans toward mitigating circumstances, but have purposely worded it to be a consideration and focusing our case far more on the academic evidence.

We were curious to see the tests to see whether there were any fluctuations at any particular part of the test. We will contact KCC to see what there current stance is but either way we do not feel this will be a defining point of our case.

Thanks again all for the contribution

[Ment2B_2000]

Hi There,

As we finalise our appeal bits and pieces, we have information advising that our DD who is top set for maths is within the top 20% of students in the school.

I'm sure I saw somewhere on the site that if the child is between a certain % it was worth a mention in the appeal and particularly in relation to a non qualification on a specific paper (maths in our case), but I now cannot find this information anywhere. (perhaps I made it up )

Can anyone confirm if the 20% is worth including?

Thanks in advance

[Etienne]

There are references to nationally standardised tests (e.g. 95th percentile would be very good), but I don't recall any mention of top 20% in the school - not sure what it would mean, because top 20% in one school would not be the same as top 20% in another!