11 Plus Exams Forum

My Son has returned from the test, and thinks he has done well on VR and Maths, but is very worried he has completely messed up the English.

I have not seen the questions obviously, but he has said the topics appeared to read as suggestions, and not definitive

Because of above and for reasons only he knows, he decided to write a story unrelated to any of the topics.

He has said it was a great story, but we are now worried if this will be scored as a Zero , or will it be marked down, and the people that mark the paper take into consideration the spelling, content, grammar etc.

Desperate to hear from anyone that knows

Thanks

Mine found English a bit easier and I am not sure if she understood it too as what she told me about it seem a bit diff from what you say. We just have to wait now until results day.

She found the VR quite difficult and maths harder. On general she thought the medway 11+ was much harder than the Kent Test.

So glad to read your post. I have been worrying all afternoon about the english. My son said they could choose what to do on the english. I thought he meant there was a choice of topics, but he said they could choose what format to write, Sounds as though the wording may have been a bit ambiguous.
I don't know how the marking will work.

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A teacher friend of mine used to mark SATs papers and once told me that writing tasks are marked for different aspects. For example there are a certain number of marks available for the grammar, other marks for the layout (paragraphs etc) and another lot of marks for the style, whether it's the right type of writing. So, if a child writes, say, a story when it should have been a report they might lose marks for the type of writing but could still score well in the other bits if that makes sense?

As long as what they wrote relates to the task they were set it'll be fine.

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Hi
I know that the english is not marked down much for spelling. I checked this out for my dd who took the test last year. She is a bad speller so i enquired and was told she may lose just a few for bad spelling. They are more interested in the content and the use of words. My dd scored well on the writing task, she told me some excellent words she used and i know she would have spelt most of them incorrectly.

I do want to say a bit more but i am concerned there may be some late sitters for the test - i may pm some of you

Can I ask for a copy my child's English paper in Medway? Read somewhere than in Kent you can get a photocopy as it is my child's copyright but then it doesnt get marked unless HT appeal. Does that apply to Medway too? Am thinking if they mark it then it then it may not be my child's copyright???

hi sherry, medway will not let you view your childs papers or have a copy of the written work, Kent let you view and when you do they hand mark your childs VR an NVR(ready for you to look at), and give you a copy of the written.

You could take it up with medway but they seem to operate differently from kent. If you are in any doubt after you get your dd's kent results i would really recommend arranging an appointement and viewing the papers.

When my son came out of the test he said that the English was a ****. Immediately after that his friend declared that he had written a ****. Following that, a third child came out announcing that he had written ****

Obviously, I now have a very worried ten year old (especially as he has spoken to more friends who wrote ****.

Is anyone else concerned?
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as yoyo has said i dont know if the detail should really be discussed, but for what its worth it sounds like the children were given a title and told to write in what format they wanted about it. If this is so there now wont be any problems with children not getting any marks as they have written in the wrong format. This has been a problem in the past with the medway test.