11 Plus Exams Forum

Could someone please enlighten me as to how the pass marks are arrived at for the Kent test? How are the pass marks 120, 120 and 115 calculated from the three papers? There are 50 questions on my maths example, 85 on my VR and 12 on my NVR. Is it simply a case of adding the marks together?
Also I have two practice versions, one with a separate answer sheet on which the pupils draw a line to indicate their answers; the other one requires the answer to be written on the sheet. Can anyone tell me which variety will be used in Thanet?
Thanks you good people, I never knew education could be so elusive!

It's impossible to work out exactly how the marks are calculated - it is an arcane process involving standard deviation, age adjustment and lots of other variable which are beyond mere mortals. Don't quote me, but I reckon that if you're hitting 75%-80% then you're on track. I spent ages trying to understand the system and finally gave up!


I think that the multiple guess....sorry, I mean multiple choice... type paper is the one used all over Kent.

Hope this helps

I've been getting very confused over what the Kent test consists of. My son is sitting it as an out of county applicant and I have no experience of it. However, a mum whose son sat the Kent test for a north Kent grammar school two years ago told me - two days ago - that it's not multiple choice and there's no nvr. She was so adamant she threw me into such a panic that I rang up one of the north Kent schools we've applied to and, apparently this was the case two years ago, but last year all the grammars in Kent adopted a uniform test which, as many others have rightly said on this forum is multiple choice Maths, NVR, VR and a writing piece which is only marked in borderline cases.

SO, if anyone tells you the format is anything other than this, they will undoubtedly be doing so in good faith, but may not realise that things have changed quite recently!!

I heard from DG that exam system changed for this year.

Bexley Mum 2 wrote:I've been getting very confused over what the Kent test consists of. My son is sitting it as an out of county applicant and I have no experience of it. However, a mum whose son sat the Kent test for a north Kent grammar school two years ago told me - two days ago - that it's not multiple choice and there's no nvr. She was so adamant she threw me into such a panic that I rang up one of the north Kent schools we've applied to and, apparently this was the case two years ago, but last year all the grammars in Kent adopted a uniform test which, as many others have rightly said on this forum is multiple choice Maths, NVR, VR and a writing piece which is only marked in borderline cases.

SO, if anyone tells you the format is anything other than this, they will undoubtedly be doing so in good faith, but may not realise that things have changed quite recently!!

Interesting document - if the link works.

http://www.judd.kent.sch.uk/Documents/P ... %2006).pdf

My interpretation is that pupils need omly score about 50% in the PESE(11+) test papers to pass in Kent.

Surely this cannot be correct.

Couldn't get the link to work

The Judd site says that a minimum score of 120 for each paper would be the 50%. However to get into Judd this would be far too low as 120 times 3 is 360 and their lowest entrant had 412 and most had 420, which is the maximum score. Hence the need to get 70-80%

moving wrote:The Judd site says that a minimum score of 120 for each paper would be the 50%. However to get into Judd this would be far too low as 120 times 3 is 360 and their lowest entrant had 412 and most had 420, which is the maximum score. Hence the need to get 70-80%

Agree, but that is to get into the Judd. It still suggests that the pass mark for Kent generally 50%.

Is that true? 50% to pass? Wow, I really hope so! I might be able to sleep a little better! My ds is currently scoring around 70% and is feeling the strain a bit now that the test is a few weeks ago, so if someone could confirm that, it would make me very happy!