Familiarisation and Practice Papers at school

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Familiarisation and Practice Papers at school

Post by guestcc »

Does anyone have any views on what you would expect your child to score when doing the Famiilarisation and Practise 1 and A and B papers at school? Does this help to give you an indication on how they might do in the real test?

PS this site has been sooooo help full. thanks to Patricia and others.
angelz
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2006 2:20 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Post by angelz »

I think it would depend on whether your child has studied/practiced the technique types before hand.

Have you done anything with your child at home, have they been tutored?.

My son gained 48%VR and 26 out of 65 NVR at school at the beginning of the year. As we were new to all of this we had done very little in the way of preparation. He has always been among the top in his class with high scoring SAT's and encouraging school/homework results. He is an excellent and enthusiastic reader and frequently does more work than required out of a pure thirst for learning.

We spent the Summer holidays practicing the type of work he would need for the 11+ and by the time he took the tests at the beginning of this month he was averaging 90%.

So I think the tests taken at school can only be a reflection of how well they will do in the real test, if you take other factors into account. Dont let them dictate whether your child takes the test or not without considering this. Good Luck
angelz
learning mum

Post by learning mum »

As i understand it the first familiarisation test they sit (A) is slightly easier than the real thing, the second and third (tests 1 and 2) are the same difficulty as the real thing. So for the latter two tests you would want the child to be achieving at least 86%, which (so I have gleaned from this site) usually equates to the pass mark of 121 once standardised. For comfort I guess you'd be hoping for a bit higher!
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear Guest CC

Test A is slightly easier than the real test, Tests 1 and 2 of the same difficulty.

Yes, your childs scores will be a good indication of his potential for the real tests, if your child has scored 70 plus then they are on the right track, but do not worry if they haven't quite scored this, nerves tend to make a difference. Generally children get better scores as they progress through the practice tests, becoming familiar, under test conditions

Dear Anglez

Understand your thoughts however Bucks is a bit different to Lincs, the practice papers are taken only a couple of weeks before the real one. Our first test is next week and many schools still haven't finished the practice testing procedure.

Patricia
Etienne
Posts: 8978
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:26 pm

Post by Etienne »

The original question was about whether the familiarisation/practice papers might provide an indication of how a child might perform in the real tests, and Patricia has rightly answered in these terms.

No one has said that the practice results, informative as they are, can be relied on as a sort of prediction, and I hope no one will make this mistake.

Unfortunately I attended too many appeals where distressed parents were saying "Our child scored so highly in the practice papers, we just can't understand what has gone wrong."

Admissions have warned school heads themselves: "Be wary about ..... extrapolating from these results ...... it is not possible to accurately equate them with the real tests."
Etienne
Guest

Post by Guest »

Can someone clarify which practice tests are which please? My son has completed the familiarisation test pack which comprised 5 sessions. we were told last week that they would then do 2 practice papers this week - but have I got it wrong - are there 3 test papers in all?

He did Practice Test A today - does that mean he still has 2 more to go? And if so, is the paper he did today supposed to be the easier one?
If it is then I am concerned as his score was not good and much lower than what he has been scoring on etutors and bright sparks papers.
usa
Posts: 141
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 4:36 am

Post by usa »

Hallo!
Yes - practice test A is supposed to be the easier one of the 3.
However, my son scored 70/80 on it a few weeks ago. I was not too happy, thinking things were only going to get harder and his score would get lower. Practise test 1 was done last week and he scored 74/80.
Both tests were done in time and under test conditions. Looking at answers for test A he actually got 4 wrong in 1 section - I dread marking the "opposite in meaning" section - I never know what he might come up with! Dont worry too much - this was your sons first proper test after all and I bet his next one will be a better score. Do have a look at the paper though (ask his school) as soon as you can, just to make sure it was silly mistakes and not a whole section.
Good luck
USA
Guest

Post by Guest »

Thanks for the reassurance - there were certainly a few silly mistakes including one where he'd worked out the right answer, put the letter V on his paper but couldn't read his own writing and marked the answer sheet U! He also answered the first 2 questions by just looking at the answer sheet and not even bothering to look at the question to get a head start!
It was really that I had been feeling encouraged that he was beginning to achieve consistent scores at home and now it feels as if it's all gone awry.


I share your views on two words that are similar - even when he knows the meaning of all the words in a group he can make some bizarre connections at times.

Oh well, I guess we just have to hope he will improve from here.
Guest

Post by Guest »

At my son's school in Burnham, the children have been doing familarisation practice ( approx 20 mins a day) however they have not actually sat any of the tests yet. Is anyone facing the same situation?? They are leaving them very late as the first test is in 10 days....should i go to the school and ask whats going on...or just wait and do lots of practice at home. What bugs me is that I would have liked my son to have had an experience of sitting the mock test in test conditions (in the hall etc) so he hows what to expect on the 5th and 11th Oct.
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear Guest

Most schools have at least completed the first 2 tests , A and 1, there are no set days for completion only that there should be at least 1 full day between tests.

I know of one school that has completed the tests in the 'wrong' order, starting with 1, then 2 and will be finishing with the easiest test, A, unsure whether that will have any consequences.

Patricia
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