11 Plus Exams Forum

I have purchased some of the GL assessment variety packs. There's no advice on scoring. I don't know what is a good score or what we should be aiming for. Anyone know what score would be a pass?

It all depends on the cohort, how difficult that particular test is and how they do. Also if you just want a pass or are aiming for one of the superselectives. Scores are standardised for age too so it doesn't boil down to a percentage. For example the Kent test pass for 2015 entry was 320, but a year earlier it was about 350. This is based on how many pass at what score. Each region is also different. For Newstead for example you would need to be aiming for at least 80%, 85% to be comfortable. Those born in September will need to get a few more questions right than those born in August but that is a generalisation as standardisation isn't quite as simple as that. Sorry for the long answer!

She was born in August and we are not looking at a super selective and we have sibling link, so a basic pass is all she needs.

I would say that if she is able to achieve 50-60% now and aiming for 60-70% by the end of the summer then that should be a comfortable pass.

From memory, the pass mark required for English was in the mid 60s and Maths was less than 50% but Maths had more questions in the time and English was considerably easier than the sample papers so not really comparable. The reasoning paper was probably somewhere in between.

I wouldn't get too hung up on scores though at this stage as there is only so much you can do and sometimes it just clicks into place at some point as it has with our daughter with Maths. She couldn't even sit and complete half a paper until recently and now is almost up to speed on a whole paper.

Good Luck!

Thank you

I think that the pass score for English was higher than that even in September 2014. I think they got the paper wrong - too easy - does not do children any favours and makes the overall final score rather iffy.

As the others say, don't use the GL practice papers to gauge scores - they are not the real papers and they are not intended to be. They are just intended to cover the sort of stuff that could come up --- except that spatial reasoning is not covered so you need to find some of that elsewhere.

In September 2014 the time per maths question was shorter than in the GL packs (but the pass score was correspondingly low) but I think the reasoning time was similar to in the packs ( you can tell by looking at raw scores for September 2014 and looking at the time that was allowed for the reasoning ). The English was easy and plenty of time --- so careless slips cost lives!!

So do the practice papers for learning rather than for scoring.

And on the verbal reasoning focus on the question types which involve understanding words ---- I suspect that the pure code type questions are not included in the Kent GL verbal reasoning anymore - can't be sure - but that brings it more in line with CEM.

We were told that DS should be getting 80-85% by the summer. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't, seemed to depend on his mood. He did very well on the day though.

From what I can gather, the English in particular was very very similar to the English GL practice papers. (With the exception of punctuation, which wasn't in the test in 2014).

I'd put money on the comprehension being longer and more difficult this year and there being punctuation, as it was too easy in 2014.

Yes, with the English they are going to have to pack more into the time (30 mins) or increase the level of difficulty or both.

I think the kind of scores that people are hoping for on practice papers are for superselective children, and maybe allowing for the fact that probably few people do make sure that there children do the practice papers under absolute test conditions at home ( no assistance, no reference books, and in the time stated in the instructions).

I am sure you can pass with scores way lower than these quoted ones in the GL practice papers.