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Pates marks

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:43 pm
by silverflora
My dd got 119 for a VR test she did at school and was told she would need at least 135 to get into Pates.

Looking at test papers, they are scored out of 100 - so how do they get scores like 119 or 135?

Any help would be really appreciated.
Thanks
Silverflora

p.s. Thank you to all those who have responded to my previous queries. I am really grateful to all of you - as I am a real newbie at this. I hope once we have got through the process I might be able to help others in the future!

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 3:39 pm
by gloucestermum
The scores they are quoting are standardised scores-ao although there may be 100 marks on a paper the score is marked out of 140.Standardisation is difficult to get your head around,and your DS's age is also taken into consideration when the mark is calculated.

I would say at a rough estimate that you would need at least 90% to get into Pates(I am sure I will be corrected by somebody with more detailed knowledge!!) :wink:

Standarised Magic....

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 3:40 pm
by mitasol
This is a standardised score. The average being 100.

This is the NFER site link to these scores. In the real exam these scores will be calculated from the cohort taking the exam.

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research-areas/as ... -ranks.cfm

A score of 119 would be top 10% 135 would be top 1% (In the example)

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 7:48 pm
by Glos_Mum
...

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 8:14 pm
by gloucestermum
It is 85 questions on paper 1 and 80 on paper 2-or it was last year!
I have always found the scores difficult to get my head around.My DS was regularly scoring between 85-90% in practice papers at home,yet on the day didn't pass for Tommies but did pass for Crypt.Obviously the cohort that took the Tommies test scored higher than the Crypt cohort,which would make sense as Tommies is normally viewed as taking higher achievers.That was certainly the case with the boys we know who got in for both schools,the ones viewed as the "brightest" going to Tommies.
It was suggested in the minutes of the Schools Admissions Forum that standardisation would be done together for all schools this year,but I haven't seen confirmation of this.Also,last year to pass Tommies you had to pass both papers(Crypt take an average of both papers) but this year it was also suggested that Tommies would take the average score.Whether this is happening I haven't found out for certain....

This is from the minutes of the Admissions Forum meeting in May 2008-
With regard to the admission appeals for The High School for Girls, the last date the panel sit will now be 7th July, not 14th July as stated in the report. Given that there were 23 spaces still available at The High School for Girls, a school member asserted that the large number of vacant places meant that there were too many grammar school places in the county, which impacted to the detriment of the county’s comprehensive schools. Officers advised that the wording of the criteria had affected the number of appeals. Recently there had been some inconsistency across Gloucester grammar schools in the wording of their admission criteria. For this year and a few years previously, the community grammar schools had required pupils to achieve a minimum score of 105 in each test. Next year this would be brought into line and the criteria would state the requirement to reach a score of 210 total. This change would reduce the number of appeals. The Chair advised officers that, if this pattern of appeals continued, the Forum would ask the Local Authority to report in detail on the demand for grammar school places. Asking for clarification on numbers, it was advised that there were 810 grammar places (11.2% of total places available at Year 7) available in Sept 2008. 785 offers had been made, which represented 10.9% of the secondary transfer cohort.



The figures quoted are before results of appeals which took place in June/July.

GM

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 8:24 pm
by gloucestermum
I thought it may be useful to all the newbies to see this link to the Annual Report of the Schools Admissions Forum 2007

http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/utili ... iaid=24763

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 9:58 pm
by Glos_Mum
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 10:34 pm
by gloucestermum
Crypt have always added the scores together and given an average score-so probably see no need to mention it! Tommies and Marling probably mention it because it is new for them this year.

Same for Ribston as Crypt.

Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:34 pm
by Burneth
Glos_Mum wrote:
75% is very much lower than I had anticipated for Tommies. And if we are saying that Crypt has a lower pass mark, then that would be even less than 75% in test papers? DS has been hitting scores between 90% and 100% (the 100 was on an AFN paper so I'm pretty much disregarding that one, I think the paper was too easy!). Today he did his first Nfer/GL paper, and got 96.5%. I know the paper on the day will be harder, but are we anywhere near where we should be for a grammar place?
Please remember on the day of the test, there are quite a lot of factors that influence performance, not just that the tests may be harder. Nerves can play a big part together with unfamiliar surroundings, other children - the list goes on. My DS scored very highly in the practice tests, however I know he under performed on the day.

Good luck for all children in the tests, it's a major achievement just to get through it all!

Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 6:53 pm
by Orson
Glos_Mum

People seem to be getting a little confused!

The '75% for Tommies' business is just to pass the test. It doesn't mean a child scoring 75% will gain a place. In fact, this sort of score is very unlikely to win a place. My experiences have shown me that 80%+ would be necessary to have any chance of going to Tommies.

Crypt's lower pass mark is just that - a lower pass mark. It's the fact that the top 112 boys are offered a place that really counts. Low/mid 70s are normally enough.

It's not true to say that as Tommies' pass mark is 210 whilst Marling's is 216, the former is easier to get in. On the contrary, Marling comes in between Tommies and Crypt. It's all down to how highly the more able boys score.

The same goes for the girls. Pates is the hardest (to get the offer of a place), then Denmark Rd and Stroud High are pretty equal, then comes Ribston.

gloucestermum & silverflora

On the subject of Pates scores - a VRQ of 135 would certainly be enough but it's not the required score. Children have gained places over the last three years with 128/129. You need to be looking at high 80s - 90%.

Orson