What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Eleven Plus (11+) in Kent

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

11 Plus Platform - Online Practice Makes Perfect - Try Now
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Post by mystery »

I've had people who have seen the paper (school staff in various different schools) telling me a huge range of things.

- that they were difficult questions which required year 6 work

- that they were simple questions requiring only strong recall of number facts


My child said they were pretty similar to the kind of thing that came up in the familiarisation paper but "easy" but short of time.

Where's the truth in all of this?
fatbananas
Posts: 1411
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:03 pm

Re: What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Post by fatbananas »

My DS said the questions were straightforward but that they had many parts to them, which made him feel that he spent a long time on each question. This worried him at the time because the thing we had worked on, towards the end of our preparation, was speed and he felt he was taking too long on each question. He finished the paper but guessed the last few as he knew he was running out of time.
Seize the day ... before it seizes you.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Post by mystery »

So I wonder if they compared with the GL practice paper questions or not? I would say they required problem-solving but I've had teachers say to me that this year's Kent paper was effectively must arithmetic and nothing else.
FortyNinePence
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Oct 02, 2013 10:06 pm

Re: What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Post by FortyNinePence »

My DS and his teacher said there were a lot of multi step problems. So given this, and the shortened timescale, it appeared to favour children who are very fast.
erialc1972
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 11:38 am

Re: What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Post by erialc1972 »

I wish I knew, anecdotally children have said it was difficult, teachers I've spoken to said it was difficult. I do know one or two children who are top level 5s who didn't pass the maths, even though they completed the paper...but then I've heard of a couple of children who definitely weren't expected to pass and did!

Children have said there was no algebra this year, wondering if it's just multi-digit arithmetic but with questions phrased in a more difficult way than usual?

So the answer is....no idea!
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Post by mystery »

And I've heard a teacher say that algebra was needed!

All very strange.

Do you think it was a variety-pack they handed out and children got different papers?
erialc1972
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 11:38 am

Re: What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Post by erialc1972 »

:lol: you may be on to something there!
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Post by mystery »

Maybe the raw score to pass gives us a clue as to the level of difficulty of the questions.

This year around. 11/30 was required to pass, depending on age. This was in 25 minutes. In past years the maths was 60 mins. 11 in 25 mins is the same as 11 /25 x 60 which is 11 x 12/5 which is 132/5 whic is approx 26. So it is the equivalent of getting 26 right in the old gl maths papers.

The old papers had 50 questions in them and the pass mark was generally around 50 percent correct to pass. This would be 25 questions correct in 1 hour. This is very similar to the 26 calculated above.

Maybe we can assume then that the difficulty level of the individual questions was the same as previously and the faster pace just allowed the very speedy and accurate mathematicians to have to do more correct in the time than previously to hit the highest standardised scores.
salsa
Posts: 2686
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2013 10:59 am

Re: What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Post by salsa »

Very good logic Mystery. Psychologically, though a child can be thrown by the fact that he/she is running out of time.
erialc1972
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 11:38 am

Re: What was the kent maths paper really like this year?

Post by erialc1972 »

Yes, makes sense. I have heard of some 'unexpected' results where very mathematically able children either did not make or just scraped the pass mark. I think it's fair to assume that the time element was the issue here. It seems even more of a problem in the Bexley test (about 28 q's in 11 mins or so?) where some L5A/6 maths kids didn't pass because they just couldn't work at that speed and didn't finish :(
Post Reply