11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi All,

Does anyone know if the written piece for the CSSE exam is marked down if the child does not use joined up writing please? I understand the need for other components but thought it odd when it was marked down for the above at a recent mock centre.

TIA

Tkegs wrote:Hi All,

Does anyone know if the written piece for the CSSE exam is marked down if the child does not use joined up writing please? I understand the need for other components but thought it odd when it was marked down for the above at a recent mock centre.

TIA

There is a marking scheme on the csse website which doesn’t mention handwriting

Tkegs wrote:Hi All,

Does anyone know if the written piece for the CSSE exam is marked down if the child does not use joined up writing please? I understand the need for other components but thought it odd when it was marked down for the above at a recent mock centre.

TIA

Just seen this.

If it's at the centre I'm thinking of, I wouldn't pay it too much heed. A marker in Chelmsford recently gave a pupil of mine 2.5 when she's a consistently high level writer. It was beyond a joke
I'm a working primary teacher so understand progress at this level varies from child to child.

I've attached a marking guide used by the CSSE. This is what they would look for in a higher level writer. No mention of size or letter joins. E.G. My son has taken to writing without joins as his writing is so beautiful when joined but it takes him much longer so reverted to non joins for speed.

The writing is appropriate to the task, and does not seem in any
significant way childish. There is evidence of a rich vocabulary, and
language is used imaginatively and precisely. Techniques are used
to create depth of description. It is possible to imagine the scene
vividly.
 There are few mistakes in the English, and these can mostly
be explained by the writer’s ambition. For example, some
adventurous words contain spelling mistakes or a
sophisticated sentence has an incorrect comma.

Hope it helps