KE Pass Marks - Questions

Eleven Plus (11+) in Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Wrekin

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miafsar
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:20 pm

KE Camp Hill Pass Marks - Urgent help required...

Post by miafsar »

Hi there - You have stated KE CAMP HILL BOYS Pass Marks for Year: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 as 347, 341, 343, 346 respectively.

Many thanks. However, what was the total mark, out of which one had to take 346 or more to get in last year?

also, what is Age-Standardised scor? My son's birthday is in July, which makes him one of the yougest in year 6 at the moment. What age benefit can he expect?

I have yet to fill in the LEA forms and want to explore a realistic chance of getting my son in the KECH, which is very close to my home.
KenR
Posts: 1506
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

Hi miafsar

The pass scores provided above are the sum of 3 Age Standardised Scores. 1 set for each question type (verbal, non verbal and numerical).

These questions are spead across the 2 papers, but the different types are collated, marked and then Age Standardised.

The maximim Age Standardised score is always 140/141, so the theoretical maximum score is 420.

You can read up about Age Standardisation, there are a couple of links from the left hand navigation on the home page. Essentially this is a statistical distribution with an average score that is always 100 (except in Bucks - but that's another story). As I said the maximum is always about 140 and the minimum 70.

The score a child achieves represents where they are in percentile terms compared to the total candidate population.

Hence:

A score of 139+ is the 99%+ percentile (within the top 1% of candidates.)
133-138 is the 99th percentile (top 1%)
128 - 129 97th percentile (top 3%)
120 - 91st percentile (top 9%)

Based on worst case previous statistics, to get into Camp Hill boys, a child would need to score 348 (347 +1 - 1 more, to avoid distance factors coming into play).

348 = 3 x116 ie the min average Age Standardised score.

An Age Standardised score of 116 is the 86th percentile. ie if he scored in the top 14% of candidates he would probably just get through. Camp Hill Boys is tough to get into.

Regarding Age standardised adjustments; this varies exam by exam. However I recall that for the recall 2005 KE Foundation exam, the difference between the raw scores for the oldest and youngest candidate at a Age Standardisation Mark of 116 was about 6 marks. So for a July birthday child this might be worth typical a couple of marks on the raw score for each VR, NVR and Numerical 'paper' compared to a child with an average birthday.

Hope this helps
miafsar
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:20 pm

Many thanks KenR

Post by miafsar »

Dear KenR - Many thanks for your detailed response. It was very informative indeed. Since it showed your indepth knowledge of 11+ process, I will ask you a further question: My son is practicing Bond Papers. He is currently doing 11-12 years (Paper 5's) of English, Maths, VR and NVR and is achieving an average score of 85% during the practice.

Do you have a past experience with kids getting into KECH? Is 85% at practice a good enough score to have a go at KECH exams, or am I pushing my luck! By the way am I correctly assuming that KE exam format will generally be the same as the Bond papers?
KenR
Posts: 1506
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

Hi miafsar

Firstly, the KECH exam is quite different to the Bond Papers; the exam is set by the Univ of Durham Curriculum Centre and no Practice papers are available.

However if you look through the Birmingham posts you will find some details of the previous format of the exam and question types. The KE Foundation exam is quite tough, probably much tougher than Bond or NFER and most find that they are under quite intense time pressure

The best advice I can give is to prepare for the unexpected and try as large a variety of sample papers as you can. Bond, NFER and maybe some of the CD based material available from this site.

A strong vocabulary knowledge is key; they are expecting children to have a reading age in excess of 14.5 years.

In terms of material - I've copied some responses that were posted on the Warwickshire and birmingham forums. (Warwickshire is now set by the Univ of Durham as well, although the exam is a bespoke exam and is a slightly different format.)
Hi Optimist

Re NFER suitability for The Univ of Durham CEM exam.

Not a great match - Durham CEM claim that their tests are 'Tutor Proof' but that really isn't the case. It appears to be very similar to Birmingham KE Founbdation exam but I can't be sure if the format is identical. The actual papers used by Warwick will be bespoke.

Worthwhile taking a hunt through the Birmingham forum for KE exam postings. fm (who is a tutor) posted some very useful material.

When my son did the Birmingham KE 11+ test a couple of years ago we did a whole variety of different 11+ practice papers - just about everyone we could find in fact. This generally served him well for the Maths(numerical) and NVR, but the VR sections in the KE exams did seem to surprise him and many of his friends who took the exam.

There was a big section at that time on word synonyms - 80 questions to answer in 10 mins - this was an area that was not particularly well covered at the time by traditional VR papers, although there is some good material now available. Some from this site.

The key thing is to prepare you child for the unexpected - that's why I think that doing a huge variety of papers is important. It's in the nature of CEM to continually try to find new and original type of 11+ questions in order to maintain their 'Tutor Proof' claims.

I would check through the Warwickshire published material yourself, but I think this is for all Warwickshire state selective schools, inc Stratford and Alcester grammars etc.

Hope this helps
from fm (thanks)
Below is a rough version of what was in this year's exam according to my pupils. Maybe others can improve on it.

Comprehension: Boy escaping from palace guards. 12 Questions. Multiple Choice. Sats level 5 readers found easy, level 4 considered hard.

Proofreading: Spelling, punctuation (no speech again), English grammar. Passage was hard but mistakes weren't. It was not the basis of a comprehension this year.

Non-verbal: Several 3d models of cubes (think Lego) given at top of page. Then list of 2d views. Had to say from which 3d model the 2d view came. 20 questions.

Maths: Data interpretatoion. Routes, timetables. Speed/time problems.Money problems. Fraction problems. Test their ability to read an interpret information. 25 mins approx. 18 questions with subsections to most. Very few of my pupils finished this year.


Break


Vocabulary: 56 words. 12 minutes. So much easier on time. Don't know if it was easier words. Several of my pupils did claim to know at least half the words (which is more than other years) but I did target this area more thoroughly this year. Sample words: altitude (back in from 3years ago), trivial,emerge, pigment, covet, antiquity, tranquil, drought, passive, incision, bewildered, device.

Missing Word: Several passages with omitted words. Choice of 3 to fill in . Best fit in context. 10 words per passage and 7 passages. 13 minutes. Words not complex e.g. choose from 'air, summit or peak' but close in meaning. Varied passages including one from Northern Lights by Philip Pullman so that will give you an idea of level.

Quick maths: This was reintroduced, having been taken out last year. 12minutes. Anything from 20 to 50 questions according to my pupils. I would appreciate if anyone knows this for definite and can pass it on. At a guess I think it was 40. Fractions, ordering fractions, decimals,algebra, powers off. Most children found impossible to finish. Very demanding on time but suited to good arithmeticians.

Non -verbal: 6 hexagons arranged around a central hexagon. A pattern connecting all, with a ? on one blank one. Select the most appropriate to replace the blank from a choice of I don't know how many. 12 minutes. 20 questions. All seemed to finish and my 'naturals' found it relatively easy.

I have to emphasise that this is not going to be a wholly accurate description of the exam. Basically I got 8 different descriptions of the exam and based timings on the most frequently appearing time.
My best advice to people targeting KE next year would be to stay flexible. By all means tutor towards the components above but do not expect an exam which replicates this. Above all, as well as doing formal work in maths, non-verbal and English, the best practice your child can do for this exam is read, read and read some more. The best thing you can do is listen to them, read to them, create an environment that encourages reading.
From personal experience,I wish I had done less maths and non-verbal, and more reading with my child. It is certainly not something you can expect a tutor to address in an hour a week.
Good luck to this year's entrants and any more information from last year's would be appreicated.
Also take a look at the following posts re the Cloze tests in Warwickshire - these haven't been included in the KE Tests to date but could be in future. Trying a few Cloze example would be useful practice:-

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... sc&start=0

Also look through the forum at http://www.usingenglish.com some good examples.

Finally, can't really comment about Bond scores - it's be so long since my children sat an 11+. I think I recall that they found the Bond papers a little harder than NFER, so it sounds like you are in the approximate ball park. We were always told that you need to be averaging 90%+ on NFER to be reasonably confident.

Hope this helps

Ken

ps I might split this topics shortly as we are moving a bit of topic if that's ok
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