The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

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The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

Post by eleven plus exams »

The new Kent Test will continue to be written by GL Assessment.
There will be 2 multiple choice papers
Reasoning (mixture of verbal and non-verbal)
Numeracy & Literacy.

There will still be a writing piece, shorter than before and will only be marked in borderline cases.
The test will vary from year to year making it less predictable.

More information will be available May 2014

Not so bad afterall !!
Article seen on BBC news and Kent On Line
mystery
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Re: The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

Post by mystery »

I am not sure where the statement that the reasoning paper is a mix of verbal and non-verbal comes from. This is not in the Kent County Council press release.
eleven plus exams
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Re: The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

Post by eleven plus exams »

This is mentioned in this news article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-24668503" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
mystery
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Re: The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

Post by mystery »

Yes, but that isn't a quote from the KCC press release so I don't know where it comes from. It sounds like good common sense - but it may not be the case. The final tender document did not say this. Is there a document somewhere else which does?
DaddyOh
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Re: The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

Post by DaddyOh »

There is nothing in the announcement that says the reasoning paper will be a mixture of VR and NVR it just says 'Reasoning' which could mean many different things.

Sounds like they were quoting Lord Voldemort and he was making an assumption (unless he has a 'source' that we've not heard about) and it's been quoted as fact by the BBC.

You'd think the BBC would have stuck to what was said in the release or talked to KCC rather than having to ask someone who has nothing to do with the process for an interpretation.
mystery
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Re: The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

Post by mystery »

It is most likely a very reasonable assumption. This paper is a test of reasoning ability according to the press release.

The 2014 paper is being put together on a shorter timescale than ever and has to be normed against a national sample. It seems unlikely that gl assessment can produce a radically new test that they have never done before in some shape or form on this timescale unless they have been cooking up the answer to c e m for some while to prevent the loss of more school entrance tests to their rival c e m and in the hopes of winning back bucks, bexley etc at the end of their new contracts with c e m.


Does anyone know what other tests GL assessment / nfer already run which could have elements of them adapted and placed into the two kent multichoice tests? E.g. Cat, progress in English and maths etc etc. Do any of these have elements within them that are not covered by the gl assessment familiarisation papers in English, maths, vr and nvr.

It does sound as though in the past gl assessment has got away with recycling question from past kent tests and from the shop bought familiarisation papers.

Maybe just by preventing this element of short cut in the test preparation we will have a better test?

The amount of time the test takes is being cut back considerably. This is intriguing as it suggests it was either unnecessarily long before or is going to be too short in its reincarnation.
penguin
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Re: The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

Post by penguin »

I was thinking that the reasoning paper would be NVR and both literacy and numeracy would be tested in the other paper as some VR papers do (Bucks) I think . Either way - I'm quite pleased - I'm hoping the style of questions don't change too much just the name of the paper they're asked on
DaddyOh
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Re: The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

Post by DaddyOh »

mystery wrote:It is most likely a very reasonable assumption. This paper is a test of reasoning ability according to the press release.

...
A great deal (but by no means all) of the VR fits better into literacy than it does into reasoning so as penguin says the reasoning may be mostly (or possibly all) NVR. I certainly wouldn't want to take it as read that it will be 50/50 NVR/VR.

VR is also the paper that is often criticised for being most coachable (some of the coding questions are all about good technique imho) so we may see much of it vanish in favour of NVR which is less coachable and has less cultural bias. In fact given the political noise about tutoring I wouldn't be surprised to see it vanish altogether from the Kent test leaving NVR comprehension and numeracy.

Whatever happens the quote is clearly an assumption on his part, I guess only time will tell how accurate an assumption it was.
mystery
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Re: The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

Post by mystery »

If you look up cat4 which is a gl assessment product described as a test of reasoning ability it includes 4 type of reasoning - vr, nvr, numerical and spatial.

The press release describes it as two tests - one of reasoning ability and the other one attainment in literacy and numeracy. I see little in the gl vr 8 familiarisation papers which tests literacy attainment.
frangipani
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Re: The New Kent Test for entry 2015-Details

Post by frangipani »

My DS sat his CATs last week. He did two reasoning papers (or so ds said, i assume vr/nvr but who knows!) plus maths and comprehension.
I wonder if that was the new CAT4 test... I expect maths and English were something else, sats papers or something.
I'm eagerly awaiting the results next term!!
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