Why are papers remarked by Kendrick & Reading?

[stumpysmiler]

I understand that the scores are released for Slough schools, but there is a delay for receiving results from K & R. If it's one paper, surely one score? What am I missing?

I've looked on this forum and have read peoples results with a nine point difference.

[Tinkers]

It's because children are standardised against the cohort sitting for that school. Most children will only get a score for kendrick or Reading or Slough. Some will ask for their score to be shared. The average score and range for the group of children is different so the standardised score is different

[stumpysmiler]

Thanks Tinkers, so my understanding is incorrect then. I thought there was a raw score which was then standardised by age i.e. a factor dependant on your birthday, but you're saying it's standardised by "age within the group for that particular school" which sat the exam?

This whole process is so confusing! Thanks for your input it's very much appreciated.

[Tinkers]

Yes it is standardised by age within the group sitting for that school (or group of schools in the case of Slough).

For instance, the extreme, totally hypothetical case, you could have a situation that the small group that take both exams. They could score really highly compared to everyone else for one school/school consortium and really low compared to everyone else for the other.

In addition the first year Slough and Reading/kendrick shared scores, Slough had a different (much bigger) score range so their possible highest and lowest scores were very different. After that they have had the same range.

[ToadMum]

Thanks Tinkers, so my understanding is incorrect then. I thought there was a raw score which was then standardised by age i.e. a factor dependant on your birthday, but you're saying it's standardised by "age within the group for that particular school" which sat the exam?

This whole process is so confusing! Thanks for your input it's very much appreciated.

Imagine a simple Venn diagram
- one circle with 'girls interested in Slough grammar schools' in it
- one circle with 'girls interested in Kendrick'.

The two circles overlap and in the overlap are 'girls interested in both the Slough grammar schools and in Kendrick'.

The raw scores of all the girls in the first circle will be age-standardised (i.e. girls born in April compared with other girls born in April etc) and those girls given a standardised score for Slough. Ditto, separately, the raw scores of all the girls in the second circle, for Kendrick. The girls in the 'overlap' will therefore have two standardised scores and can decide whether to apply to either school.

The two scores each 'overlap' girl gets may be very similar, or less so, depending on the overall difference between the two groups and how many have asked to be considered for both; the bigger the proportion of the whole the overlap represents, the more similarthe two scores will be for any given girl.

[Tinkers]

For the first couple of years of the 'shared test', the numbers sharing their score was quite high. (If you look at my thread on historic data for kendrick you can see the jump in numbers, similarly for Reading). For both those years it was a simple tick-in-a-box process to share your score and it would seem to be so easy lots of people did it, regardless of whether they stood any chance of getting a place, or regardless of whether they even intended to apply. Reading and Kendrick both have a catchment and have not allocated places outside that catchment since it was introduced. If you live outside catchment it's very unlikely your DC will get a place, so many don't bother wasting a space on their CAF.

This time around if you wanted your DC to sit for both, you had to register with both the Slough consortium and Reading/Kendrick, then tell them both where your DC would sit the test. That extra step seems to have been enough to put off a fair number of people.

[stumpysmiler]

So if only considering Reading, only apply to Reading directly not to Slough, or do you have to do Slough too? We are Maidenhead so catchment for Reading.

[ToadMum]

So if only considering Reading, only apply to Reading directly not to Slough, or do you have to do Slough too? We are Maidenhead so catchment for Reading.

However many other schools the scores can be shared with, if you would only consider applying to one of them, there is no need to register with any others.

[Tinkers]

So if only considering Reading, only apply to Reading directly not to Slough, or do you have to do Slough too? We are Maidenhead so catchment for Reading.

If you have no intention of applying for Slough, you don't need to register with them and your score will only apply to Reading. As TM says you could in theory share your score with other schools that use the same test, but unless you are prepared move and the admissions criteria mean you might get a place, there really isn't any point.