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Scoring and Standardisation

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:51 am
by stressedaddy
Hello,

Can anyone explain the scoring process and hwo age standardisation is used, my son has a birthday falling in October, comapred to someone in August, my other son, how many marks would the Oct son loose or be disadvantaged by?

Is age standardisation an important factor?

Thanks in Advance.

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:10 am
by fm
It varies with each exam type and with each cohort.

Figures I had for BV/Sutton Girls suggest age standardisation makes very little difference in this exam. Certainly for that particular year it looked as though they were gaining just 1 standardised point per 6 months for the non-verbal paper and the maths paper. Don't know about the verbal because I had no students on same mark. At a guess a September birth would have ended up with 6 less points than an August birth for the same scores.

Much more significant was the increase in standardised points at the high scoring level, with children gaining an extra 8 standardised points for 1 question more answered correctly in the verbal reasoning as you got closer to full marks and many less children scoring up at this level.

I think the age standardisation is more significant in the KE exam. KENR has posted some figures for this variation in the past which you should be able to find.

As a tutor, however, I never factor in their birth dates. What the older ones lose in points in the exam, they gain in maturity in their approach to their exam preparation and to the exam itself. Apart from the occasional anomaly, it is almost always the Sept to Dec. I am most confident about in the lead up to the exam and I rarely have a child in this age range failing, whereas I have had less success with the July and August births despite this slight advantage.

Age standardisation is not, in my opinion, worth worrying about--especially as you can't do much about it!

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:11 am
by KenR
Check the sticky for answers to this question

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