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Dispersion of Year 8 maths exam scores

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 8:39 pm
by LostInTheShuffle
My DD is in Year 8 at an academically selective indie. Although Year 8 has three maths sets, all of them recently took the same maths exam, with the lowest and highest scores (to DD's knowledge) being 47% and 97% respectively. Such a wide dispersion (50%) really surprised me. Is this common at selective schools?

Re: Dispersion of Year 8 maths exam scores

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 8:41 pm
by Guest55
It depends on the test ...

I can remember much bigger ranges.

Re: Dispersion of Year 8 maths exam scores

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 5:42 am
by LostInTheShuffle
Guest55 wrote:It depends on the test ...

I can remember much bigger ranges.
It appeared to be a standard internal maths exam, although perhaps the school was also looking to see whether they got the sets right (which only start in Y8). Given the school's competitive 11+ entry process, I would have thought that the students' maths performance would be more narrowly clustered.

Re: Dispersion of Year 8 maths exam scores

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 6:36 am
by Daogroupie
Most selective schools have an exam format consisting of more than one subject.

You only have to look at the QE and DAO results to see huge differences in the English and Maths scores. I know of QE students with 130s in English but 110s in Maths but the total has taken them to the 250s which is over twenty marks higher than the last mark to get in on allocation day last year.

I know of DAO students with an Maths mark in the 90s and a English mark in the 50s which still put them in the top thirty ranks of all the students who sat.

These students will get places but will clearly be a lot weaker in one subject than another.

Will there be an English test which might show the same sort of differences? DG

Re: Dispersion of Year 8 maths exam scores

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 6:52 am
by ToadMum
Was the 47% a single outlier (child having a particularly bad day, just hadn't been keeping up with homework / classwork / taken ill after ten minutes or whatever), or were there lots of scores at that end of the spectrum of scores?

And as DG has said, this pupil / these pupils may have done very well in one part of the entrance assessment and not necessarily so well in another. People are always quoting, girls so much better than boys at English, etc.

Re: Dispersion of Year 8 maths exam scores

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 8:15 am
by Amber
At my children's ('superselective' - horrid word but tells you what you need to know in this context) grammar schools I recall marks between about 16% and 98% in all kinds of internal exams right up to sixth form. For a start off many children don't revise for some internal exams, forget they have exams/tests on particular days/really have no idea what day of the week it is sometimes. At the supposedly top school my DD went to for sixth form most of the group did so badly in a Y13 test that the teacher tried to give them detention! By Y8 some students will be beginning to assert their individuality, as well as being weaker in some areas than others.

Re: Dispersion of Year 8 maths exam scores

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 9:30 am
by Bazelle
At CLS in Y8 with 3 different maths sets I have heard of wider range, 100% to 39% I think, don't forget that even the lower set end up with As at GCSE in old money, except perhaps the 39% :), but usually this is a wake up call and parents will try to remedy the situation one way or another.

Re: Dispersion of Year 8 maths exam scores

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 7:54 am
by LostInTheShuffle
Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to respond. You're right that there could be a whole host of reasons for such a wide dispersion at this stage (and perhaps permanently).

Interestingly, the students' scores corresponded roughly to their assigned sets, with a gap of around 25% between the 1st and 3rd sets (measured by the average set score).

Re: Dispersion of Year 8 maths exam scores

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 9:38 am
by ToadMum
LostInTheShuffle wrote:Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to respond. You're right that there could be a whole host of reasons for such a wide dispersion at this stage (and perhaps permanently).

Interestingly, the students' scores corresponded roughly to their assigned sets, with a gap of around 25% between the 1st and 3rd sets (measured by the average set score).
Then you can be reassured that the school does get some things right :lol:. I'm sure setting for maths isn't it's only charm, though :).