CSSE Exam -how did your dc find it?

[ToadMum]

Way far more people than I expected at SHSG. It was a nightmare for the teachers to organise. Some came with the entire family, including grand parents with queues to the bathroom etc! Must have been quite stressful for 10-11 yr old! A bit overwhelming for me! In the morning driving into SHSG from Shenfield was ok, but going back the A27 was a complete nightmare! I hope that Essex will follow the likes of Kent, and get the kids to sit for this exam at their local primary school. That would be far less stressful for the kids!

And an absolute nightmare with regard to administration for the CSSE - the situation is completely different here from that of Kent, a fully-selective county with many / most year 6 children in every primary school sitting the exam. Not to mention that some schools may be reluctant to open up for a Saturday morning or to find staff willing to oversee the session, for the sake of perhaps two or three DC whose parents have 'opted them in' for an exam. Or - if you are suggesting that the exam should be taken during the school week? - disrupting the normal working day of the school for the same.

Also - I hesitate to mention this, but: Quality Control? With the number of cases where primary schools have been found to have assisted children sitting SATs, frankly I would also have some concerns that those schools not at least slightly reluctant to participate in the process might be tempted.

ETA- the A127 is a very busy road, at the weekend and in rush hour, in both directions. And particularly busy at the moment because of the road widening works on the A13 at Orsett, with total closure of the A13 at that point most weekends.

[Daogroupie]

Why don't they insist on only one adult with the student?

It is insane to let entire families on the premises like it is some sort of fun event.

DG

[Tarangmum]

SHSB was very efficient in managing the crowd and the 6th Form boys were extremely helpful.Regarding the exam, my boy found Maths bit hard and English ok. Anxiously waiting for the results

[sweetpea_ns]

My son was self tutored. He found the English Ok, he quite enjoyed it, however the Maths was a little challenging. He said there were 5-6 questions that were tough. I wondered how everyone else found the Maths paper this year? I have heard a lot of people saying it was tough.

[LennyLongLegs]

My son said exactly the same, English was ok but there were five or six questions in the maths he said he didn't have a clue how to do. He seemed a bit disheartened about the maths as he does favour maths and when he spoke to his friend afterwards his friend said it was easy. However, having read the other comments it sounds as though feedback from others is similar to my sons.

[RedDevil66]

My son said exactly the same, English was ok but there were five or six questions in the maths he said he didn't have a clue how to do. He seemed a bit disheartened about the maths as he does favour maths and when he spoke to his friend afterwards his friend said it was easy. However, having read the other comments it sounds as though feedback from others is similar to my sons.

You always get one or two who claim it was easy but if maths is their strong point then it's hardly surprising

[Tkegs]

My son said exactly the same, English was ok but there were five or six questions in the maths he said he didn't have a clue how to do. He seemed a bit disheartened about the maths as he does favour maths and when he spoke to his friend afterwards his friend said it was easy. However, having read the other comments it sounds as though feedback from others is similar to my sons.

You always get one or two who claim it was easy but if maths is their strong point then it's hardly surprising

My DS also found the math challenging and noted it was 'between last years paper and the previous year' in terms of difficulty. Seeing last years paper raw mean result was ~24/60 that seems pretty challenging to me.

[MoDragons]

My DS said English was very different from the practice papers he's done. He found it exciting (!) and not hard at all, but that's understandable as he's always excelled at it.
Maths he found difficult and said he couldn't do 1/5 of the test however had time to double check on the ones he managed to complete.
He's glad it's over and he go back to "just enjoying life" as he puts it.

[SchoolMum3G]

My DD sat it at WHSG’s and I thought the organisation was extremely good. Though we made sure we arrived at 7.45am as I have previous experience so know families queue way before the time the school set for the registration to begin and I found that adds to the stress the first time we sat the exam.

My daughter didn’t really want to talk about the test - she’s very pleased it’s over! She did say that she had found the math test difficult - but she had time to read it over and caught a few questions she did know the answer to that she’d missed on the first go through. She didn’t really talk about the English.

[Caesar2019]

Thanks all, so it seems the paper really was a bit of a mixed bag this year with some of the Maths questions being particularly challenging. I was hoping it may swing the other way this year with last year’s paper being so difficult but it appears to be getting harder and harder year on year. DS is happy and appears too busy enjoying his free time to stress about the results but this wait is torture for me!!!