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standardised age scores

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:25 pm
by mousaka
The Verbal Reasoning practice papers consist of 100 questions - so where does the pass mark of 115 come from?

The Verbal Reasoning is scored out of 100 initially. We use a national standardisation table which takes into account the child's age at the time of the exam and it is this table that brings the score up to a maximum 140. The younger the child the more weighted the score will be. So a child with an August birthday would need to score around 64% to reach the 115 pass mark whereas an older child would need to score around 80%.



The above comes from DAO admission pages. They specify that a younger child born in August needs 64%, but do not mention which month an older one, who needs to have 80%, is born.
I would think they mean the opposite end - September, but cannot be sure. Does anybody have an idea?

On the same note - my son scored 104 in Latymer and did not go through.
How much in percentage terms did he do?
How many points are added for each month.
I saw some post earlier about this subject , but none made me any smarter.

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:37 pm
by Guest
I understand 105 is equivalent to the 115 at DAO. I remember the old head at Latymer explaining that school adjusts its NVR passmark according to the London cohort (which apparently has a higher average). The adjustment amounted to 10 points which makes 115 at DAO equivalent to Latymer's 105. I hope I have made myself clear!

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:52 pm
by Guest
so are you saying that on the whole the kids sitting Latymer are brighter than those sitting Owens?

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:03 pm
by Guest
No, not at all !!!

105 is considered to be average nationally. DAO uses 115 to indicate whether second round papers need to be marked. DAO uses a 10 point higher figure than the national average to account for the different London cohort. Latymer uses an equivalent figure, for the same reasons but calls it 105 because the school has already made an internal adjustment to account for the London cohort.

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:05 pm
by Guest
Still slightly confused but have decided not to worry too much about it!! Probably difficult to compare VR and NVR anyway.

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:33 pm
by Guest
Latymer's scores are adjusted for the London cohort prior to sending the results to parents (the London average is 115 but Latymer prefers to continue calling it 105 in line with national average). In Dao's case the London average of 115 is not adjusted so the school uses 115 as its cut off point. Overall, Latymer's 105 is equivalent to DAO's 115.

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:11 pm
by mousaka
I understand 105 is equivalent to the 115 at DAO
I understand a cut off point in Latymer is 104 and in DAO is 114, however it does not answers my question how many points are added for each month of being born later? What % does my son need to score in DAO being born end Jan to get the requested 114 mark?

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:17 pm
by Guest
I think you can assume the 80% figure applies to a September born applicant and then work pro rata. You are looking at standardised VR marks of around 130 and above to be offered a place.

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:15 pm
by Guest
Latymer's scores are adjusted for the London cohort prior to sending the results to parents (the London average is 115 but Latymer prefers to continue calling it 105 in line with national average).
At the headteachers talk he said the marks were standardised to the 1772 children sitting that exam and 100 would be the average for that particular chort as oppose to a national or previous Latymer cohorts. Out of those the top 600 (who made it above the cut off this year of 106) would sit second round. Have I misunderstood something here?

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 10:05 am
by Guest
My information came from Mr Cooper's speech three years ago.