Medway Test - 2007

[Embleton]

Whilst my daughter said the maths test was hard she also said it wa similar to the Nfer test papers that she had done. Just harder questions. Apart from the odd one who said the test was easy, who I suspect were merely showing bravado, everybody seems to agree the maths was difficult. Still it is a level playing field for all.
I also felt guilty about putting her through this, although she wanted to do it. Surely it would be better to just combine the 11+ in with their SATS tests and let all children take it. You could still do the school selection prcedure with palces being allocated according to preference and SATS results.

[winnie]

Trouble with that idea is that SATs aren't done until May and results are not available until end June/early July - far too late for basing offers of school places on. As these are national tests there's no way of bringing hem forward either.

[Guest]

Totally agree with you about STATs. My daughter has constently been in highest streams since attending school, although it was her decission to take the test nerves completely took over from friday night. She was still awake at 03:00 and like a previous message has not eaten and has just wished to stay in bed since as she feels she has not pasted. I have an eight year old also doing very well, but i will not be putting her through this torture. They are only 10 / 11 years old and will deal with enough stress and anguish when they are adults.

[Guest]

Totally agree with you about STATs. My daughter has constently been in highest streams since attending school, although it was her decission to take the test nerves completely took over from friday night. She was still awake at 03:00 and like a previous message has not eaten and has just wished to stay in bed since as she feels she has not passed. I have an eight year old also doing very well, but i will not be putting her through this torture. They are only 10 / 11 years old and will deal with enough stress and anguish when they are adults.

[Embleton]

I suppose the easy answer would be to bring the SATS tests forward on a national basis to early March and results could be out by end of April. You could still go through the application process before hand but it would take away all of the pressure of doing a one off exam in unusual surroundings on a saturday. It would just then become part of another school test and the pressure on the children would be lessened.

Trouble with that idea is that SATs aren't done until May and results are not available until end June/early July - far too late for basing offers of school places on. As these are national tests there's no way of bringing hem forward either.

[suzanne]

My son came out from the exam very upset as he said he missed out on 20 questions for the maths test and 13 questions for the vr. He said they were nothing like what he had been taught. Should i give up all hope now? are there any others that missed out alot of questions?

Please someone out there give it to me straight, is this bad? as its gonna drive me mad waiting 2 weeks for results lol

many thanks for any help [/b]

[Embleton]

Suzanne, everybody myself and my daughter have spoken to have all said the maths test was very hard. Therefore, it follows that everybody is on a level playing field. Also remember the VR is only worth half the number of marks as maths and english. Provided he has scored well in english he still has a chance. Never give up hope until the postman brings!!

[claire]

My son came out from the exam very upset as he said he missed out on 20 questions for the maths test and 13 questions for the vr. He said they were nothing like what he had been taught. Should i give up all hope now? are there any others that missed out alot of questions?

Please someone out there give it to me straight, is this bad? as its gonna drive me mad waiting 2 weeks for results lol

many thanks for any help [/b]

I don't know if it's bad, Suzanne, but much the same happened to my son and we are feeling very much the same as you. Take comfort from the fact that children I know last year had exactly the same problem but still scored highly, presumably because of excellent English scores. In reply to an earlier posting, yes, I felt extremely guilty leaving him at the test centre. I am not proud of having put him in a situation which I only encountered at 15 years old when doing O levels. Why are we allowing this to happen to 11 year olds?

[Embleton]

The KM says that 1800 pupils took the test in Medway and that 953 places are up for grabs. Does that mean our children have a 50% chance of getting a Grammar school place? I'm confused now as I thought the test was supposed to select the top 25% of pupils which would only mean about 450 passes for 953 places.
Does anybody know what is going on?

[claire]

The KM says that 1800 pupils took the test in Medway and that 953 places are up for grabs. Does that mean our children have a 50% chance of getting a Grammar school place? I'm confused now as I thought the test was supposed to select the top 25% of pupils which would only mean about 450 passes for 953 places.
Does anybody know what is going on?

Don't forget that not every child in Medway took the test. However, if the KM figures are correct, surely that means that half the children there last Saturday will get a grammar place. Am I giving myself false hope?