Reading 2012 exam dates

Eleven Plus (11+) in Berkshire (Berks)

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

Post Reply
stevew61
Posts: 1786
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:54 pm
Location: caversham

Reading 2012 exam dates

Post by stevew61 »

http://www.reading-school.co.uk/uploads ... 013-14.pdf

Results
Reading School will post results of tests to parents on 23 October 2012.

The tests will take place at Reading
School on 1 October 2012. The LA will offer places on behalf of Reading School on 1 March 2013.

Deadline of receipt of applications
The deadline for receipt of applications to Reading School is 24 September 2012.
RG7mum
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:20 pm

Re: Reading 2012 exam dates

Post by RG7mum »

Does anyone know whether Reading Boys now intends to publish ranking of test results, like Kendrick ? Or will it be similar to Slough whereby you find out your score, and know if you've passed, but will still be unclear on likelihood of a place unless it's exceptionally high ?

Thanks
stevew61
Posts: 1786
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:54 pm
Location: caversham

Re: Reading 2012 exam dates

Post by stevew61 »

From the link above. :)

Results
Reading School will post results of tests to parents on 23 October 2012. If your son is assessed as suitable for admission to
Reading School, you may wish to list Reading School as one of your preferences on your Common Application Form. However
being assessed as suitable for Reading School will not guarantee that your son will be offered a place as it is extremely likely
that more boys will qualify for places than the School can accommodate. In this case we will apply our oversubscription criteria
as listed above.
Oversubscription Criteria
The following oversubscription criteria will be applied if there are more applicants than places available. A cut-off point will be
determined, below which students will be deemed not to benefit from the style of education provided at Reading School and
these students will not be considered for admission to the school and not therefore ranked according to the over-subscription
criteria below.
All applicants above the cut-off point will be ranked in the following order and within each category strictly by their
performance in the test.............
Looks like they only plan to say if you have qualified in October, which is a bit silly IMHO. I guess the way to find out is to email them and ask. :wink:
cestlavie
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:56 pm

Re: Reading 2012 exam dates

Post by cestlavie »

I would guess that they will send the same information out that they previously sent in March, which will be the standardised score after adjusting for age. In that letter they also previously stated the number of applicants. So you can work backwards and get a rough idea of the rank, it isn't exact because there is clustering of scores, but gives a fair indication of your chance.

I have DS2 sitting this year (though in a relaxed way as I'm happy for him to follow DS1 to another school). Since I have a statistics background I'm happy to help give a "guesstimate" when it comes round to October if they don't give the rank. Last year the pass mark for first offers was ~343, it doesn't change much but is more likely to go up rather than down (assuming applicant numbers will go up rather than down). Hopefully this year's cohort can give the figures they receive in March which will be of help to those getting results in 2012.
stevew61
Posts: 1786
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:54 pm
Location: caversham

Re: Reading 2012 exam dates

Post by stevew61 »

cestlavie wrote:Since I have a statistics background I'm happy to help give a "guesstimate" when it comes round to October if they don't give the rank.
Might take you up on that for Kendrick 2012 who seem to be saying likewise they will give a score but not a rank in October. I guess the schools are wary of a ranking being misinterpreted as an offer. :roll:

Happy to have your "guesstimate" as an educated guess :) to go alongside my sketch of a distribution and stick-in-a-pin uneducated guess. :lol:
cestlavie
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:56 pm

Re: Reading 2012 exam dates

Post by cestlavie »

You can do it quite easily in Excel with the following (I'm using Reading as an example):

The "passmark" last year for first round offers was 343.5. This is the sum of the standardised scores for the 3 papers, so the average is a = 343.5/3 = 114.5.

Assuming this represents a standardised score with mean 100 and standard deviation 15 (which is the norm for all educational standardisation) then an estimate of the rank can be obtained typing the following formula into Excel:

=(1-NORMDIST(a,100,15,1))*n

where n is the number of applicants.

Last year n=537 and thus for the cutoff this formula gives the rank as 89.6. Of course at the cut-off this should equal 100 so I think this reflects a high degree of clustering of scores.
stevew61
Posts: 1786
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:54 pm
Location: caversham

Re: Reading 2012 exam dates

Post by stevew61 »

Thanks for that but I prefer looking at a graph, easier for me to comprehend. :)

Looking back at historical results for Kendrick.

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... drick+rank" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Kendrick average standardised score of 121 , VR 126 , NVR 116 joint 37th in rank order................. Thu Jun 09, 2011
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... ank#p61416" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Her friends got 116 and 114 and both got in but my DD got 112 (joint rank 110) and ended up at no 20 so there must have been lots of girls who got a place who were between those 2 points!!!............................ We have today been offered a place at Kendrick............. Thu Jun 19, 2008
Looking at how nfer (or whatever they are called today) who provide the exam service for Kendrick and reading from the graph the top 16% and a bit should get an offer, 16% of say 700? candidates being 112 offers for 96 places. I'm being cautious here. The problem is of course bunching of scores around the cut off. And not all the top 96 offers will be highest on CAF or accepted, etc.

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/research/ass ... sation.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


So I guess a score of 115 should be safe? This year the new designated area may have an influence on the outcome?

And finally, if you want a place rank it first on your CAF!!
Post Reply