Review of the exam

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MedievalBabe
Posts: 1191
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:56 pm

Review of the exam

Post by MedievalBabe »

Last night we went to HSFG for their open evening and the Head talked about the exam. She said that all of the GSs were currently in the process of reviewing the exam from this year and that the dates she gave may change for registering etc, but currently the exam date is the 12th September 2015. She also said to keep an eye out for an announcement in regards to the exam and further details.
scaredycat
Posts: 105
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:36 pm

Re: Review of the exam

Post by scaredycat »

That's interesting, DD is year 7 at HSFG and a week or so after the new test she came home and said they had done an online test at school. My first thought was that it was obviously cats, but the way she described it sounded as if it was like new 11+ test. They did it on the computer and it lasted 45 minutes. She had different questions to the people sitting next to her. When she talked about it with her friends, they had also had different types of questions and it doesn't sound anything like the cats tests she did in year 5 or the cats test done by DS in year 7. I did wonder if it was a tweaked version of the new 11+ as I guess they will need to adjust things and will need to trial any changes. We also haven't had any cats results from school, which I would have expected if they had taken these. I am also guessing that DD's cohort would be ideal to test a tweaked version on as they are the last batch from the old test.
Stressed?Moi?
Posts: 1844
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:28 am

Re: Review of the exam

Post by Stressed?Moi? »

I know Year 7's in 2012 were trialling a grammar test. Perhaps it's something they do every year.
DebsB
Posts: 144
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:25 pm
Location: Cheltenham

Re: Review of the exam

Post by DebsB »

scaredycat, could it have been MidYIS? Lots of schools use that for baseline comparisons
scaredycat
Posts: 105
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:36 pm

Re: Review of the exam

Post by scaredycat »

It could have been midyis, she did say that it was the CEM website. Just seems odd as she said that they all had very different types of questions. DD had a lot of algebra, but her friends didn't. I'm not sure how accurate results will be if the questions are not equivalent, as it were. I know that other grammars use cats, as we have had DS's results on a print out for years 7, 8 and 9 it we haven't received anything from DD's school.
DebsB
Posts: 144
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:25 pm
Location: Cheltenham

Re: Review of the exam

Post by DebsB »

scaredycat wrote:It could have been midyis, she did say that it was the CEM website. Just seems odd as she said that they all had very different types of questions. DD had a lot of algebra, but her friends didn't. I'm not sure how accurate results will be if the questions are not equivalent, as it were. I know that other grammars use cats, as we have had DS's results on a print out for years 7, 8 and 9 it we haven't received anything from DD's school.
Midyis is produced by CEM, and it's an adaptive test - so everybody gets the same first question, and after that you get asked harder or easier questions depending on whether you've got the questions you've already done right or wrong. If your DD got some easier algebra questions right, she'll have got more and harder ones. If her friends flunked a few basic algebra questions, the computer won't have given them any more of them.
scaredycat
Posts: 105
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:36 pm

Re: Review of the exam

Post by scaredycat »

Aha, that's probably it then. She's a bit of a maths whizz so she rather liked the algebra!
CKMum
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:39 am

Re: Review of the exam

Post by CKMum »

It does sound like MidYIS, my DD in Year 7 is taking hers today and her GS wrote and told us about them a couple of weeks ago. The GS said that the test is designed to measure aptitude and will help staff track whether students are making expected progress as they move up the school towards their GCSEs. Parents are not told the results - I asked! It is purely for internal school purposes. I don't know whether the kids will be told, but I guess not if the parents aren't....
DebsB
Posts: 144
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:25 pm
Location: Cheltenham

Re: Review of the exam

Post by DebsB »

CKMum wrote:It does sound like MidYIS, my DD in Year 7 is taking hers today and her GS wrote and told us about them a couple of weeks ago. The GS said that the test is designed to measure aptitude and will help staff track whether students are making expected progress as they move up the school towards their GCSEs. Parents are not told the results - I asked! It is purely for internal school purposes. I don't know whether the kids will be told, but I guess not if the parents aren't....
Kids aren't usually told, if it's anything like the schools I've been involved with.

It's fine for them to have a general policy that MidYIS results are just for internal use and they don't routinely report them to parents, but any parent who wants to know their child's result can ask for it and should be given it. It's a data protection issue - you have a right to see any data that they hold on your child.
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