Second sitting

[streathammum]

Have you confirmed that the papers are actually different?

If the maths paper was the same, it would imply that the second cohort was weaker than the first and that would perhaps also explain the difference in the English marks.

[bittenfingernails]

This is probably a controversial view but might the discrepancy in results be due, in part, at least, to the fact some parents with less academic children were undecided about whether to enter their children into the exam and put them through the inevitable stress. By the time they had made a decision to do so, the Saturday sitting was already full. This is certainly true of one or two children I know who sat the second papers. They missed out on the Saturday sitting because their parents were unsure about whether to enter them into the 11-plus in general. I appreciate this does not apply to children who were unwell on the Saturday.

[anotherdad]

The mean for the first paper is significantly higher both in Maths and English than those for the second paper which is a a clear indication that the second paper was more difficult.

Until we have the answer to streathammum's question, this is just speculation.

Were the papers different?

[DSDSDD]

Have you confirmed that the papers are actually different?

This.

[DSDSDD]

There is a good sample size of the number of children in each test (4,573 and 884 respectively) to ensure a realistic comparison

Line 2 of first paragraph should read, "(4,753 and 884 respectively)"

[bittenfingernails]

The second sitting exam papers were different. When my DC was a bit under the weather, I rang the CSSE office before the exams to ask exactly this question. content removed by moderator.

[streathammum]

I believe the English papers have been different in the past but a question has been raised about the maths paper. Was that definitely different?

[bittenfingernails]

That's what I was told, but to be fair, I didn't ask specifically about the maths.

[gugu]

@streathammum
The papers for the 2nd sitting for both maths and English were definitely different

[Sarmum]

I’ve gone through the CSSE 11 plus twice before, with DD 2016 and DS in 2018. According to my understanding, maths paper would have been the same. It’s clear from the past papers I’ve purchased from CSSE, that the English papers would say, Main Test 1, (2017). Maths would just say Mathematics Test (2017). There’s no reference to test number or whether it’s main entry on maths test papers.

I can confirm that this has been the case from 2014 to 2018 entry papers that I used with my DC. I very much doubt maths would have been a different paper for 2019 entry. My DS’s classmate scored highest in the school, having done the second sitting. The mean scores are very much to do with the cohort than the difficulty of the papers.