Some questions about exams. Help please!

[earn]

My son is sitting entrance exams for private school. He is currently in P6 (year 5). We know that at least one of the tests (maths) is multiple choice. I am trying to work out whether he is best to guess answers or leave them out. If he runs out of time would he be better to just put a mark somehwere for every quetion or to leave it so that at least most he does he will get correct. I have heard of test where wrong answers are given -1 whereas no answer would be 0.

He will also be writing an essay. Based on a total time of 45mins how many words would he be expected to write. This is probably his weakest area, and we have done no practice until today. He wrote an essay with around 550 words, would that be OK if spelling, content etc was all good?

Thanks.

[chad]

HI earn,

You may want to post this in the'independant Schools' section. (just copy and paste from this one)

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... m.php?f=31

If you mention the school/ area that you are looking at then there is a wealth of info that members, with experience of in school exams, can give you... unfortunately I am not one

[Sally-Anne]

Hi earn

I have moved you to Independent Schools - hope it didn't hurt.

I can't help on the essay, but on Multiple Choice the thing to do if he runs out of time is to mark the first answer for each of the remaining questions. Therefore, if he has 5 questions left and there are 5 possible answers for each, the statistical probability is that he will get at least one correct answer. There is obviously a risk that none of them will be correct, but the chances are higher than by just marking the missing questions randomly.

When my DS was practising for the 11+ he failed to finish one paper and left the last 5 questions. If he had followed the technique above he would in fact have got two correct answers on that particular paper.

Obviously the principle works for any one of the answers, but it is just easiest to teach a child to mark the first one.

Sally-Anne

[Mummyto3]

Hi Earn

My DS (also yr5) recently sat his exams for 2 indie schools. For one of the exams he had 50 mins to write a story. He was usually doing around 1 1/2 - 2 pages. Not sure if they do word count but am sure that they are more interested in content and the use of interesting adjectives and the story flow.

He passed both exams and has his final interview tomorrow. I agree with the other posters that if he is running out of time he should just mark the sheet randomly as I am sure using the laws of average he will get a couple right

[laid back son worried mum]

I have heard of test where wrong answers are given -1 whereas no answer would be 0.

For a specific answer to that mark scheme, you would have to ask someone with experience of that schools's test..in Scotland??

That is specifica11y meant to stop random gue55es to the Maths questions; so that if you get it wrong ,a mark is deducted. That is risking your precious hard earned marks from your other correct answers.

If this is the case with the school exams you are looking at, then it'd be wiser not to gue55 the answers.

[earn]

Thanks for moving me. It didn't hurt a bit!

Thanks for the info on the English essay. I am sure quality is considered above quantity, but it is good to hear that he is in the correct ball park for volume.

I would also recommend marking all of the answer he doesn't manage to finish with the same answer, but tend to think it is a risky strategy unless we know a wrong answer is not marked -1. Have no idea how I could find out whether this is the case for Dollar though. If I set the exams it would be -1, as I think it would give me a more correct picture, but who knows.