Maths Paper Time Muck up !!!

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goingloopy
Posts: 84
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:02 am

Maths Paper Time Muck up !!!

Post by goingloopy »

Ok, Did anyone else have this problem ?

My DS has just informed me that during the maths paper at Chatham Grammer School his maths paper was collected in 10 mins early, they warned them that they had 10 mins remaining, then gave them a 3 min warning, at this point he answered randomly all the questions he had not answered and then his paper was collected.

A couple of min later they were given their paper back with no explanation, my DS left it on the desk and only picked it up when he realised everyone else was looking through theirs, he tried to find the questions that he had ramdomly answered however is could not remember which ones they were and started to panic....

I am gutted that he has only just told me this but was wondering if anyone else has a child in the same position.

I can not believe that they could be so stupid to collect in the papers a whole 10 mins early, they pressure these children were in was immense and to tell them they only had 10 mins left when they in fact had 20 mins must have been so confusing for them, the poor little things. Can you imagine they could have only been half way through the paper.

I am fuming and will be asking for some answers of my own tomorrow when i call the admissions dept and Medway council !!!
ausvic
Posts: 120
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:23 pm

Re: Maths Paper Time Muck up !!!

Post by ausvic »

Have a look at the KM website. There is a story about this.
goingloopy
Posts: 84
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:02 am

Re: Maths Paper Time Muck up !!!

Post by goingloopy »

Thanks Ausvic, i will have a look now, just goes to show that i dont read this paper !!!
tiredmum
Posts: 1161
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:51 am

Re: Maths Paper Time Muck up !!!

Post by tiredmum »

In the article it is being said that as they were then given the extra time to complete it wont have made a differnce to how the dc's did ! rubbish! Last year i said to my dd when you only have a couple of mins left you need to guess and fill in answer sheet for any she had not yet answered. Many may have done this and would then have to rub out and find their place etc, taking up valuable time - what a shambles!
sherry_d
Posts: 2083
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:38 pm
Location: Maidstone

Re: Maths Paper Time Muck up !!!

Post by sherry_d »

Thats really sad and Medway should put its hands up on this one.

If I am right Maths was the middle paper and surely this would affect the poor kids' perfomance on the remaining paper too. The little ones would just panic through thinking they could be stopped early again. :( The pandamonium alone of collecting the papers and giving them back would just throw a lot of kids off. They have nerves already and for the council to not take responsibility is utterly shameless.

The article states there were 268 kids there but am wondering if they were all affected or just some of them? At the Maths school, they put them into about 15 or so different groups in diff classes so perhaps that avoids messing up with all the kids unless they use one central start and stop time. I hope the parents affected will keep pushing for a fair resolution from the council.
Impossible is Nothing.
testbuster
Posts: 116
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2009 9:29 am

Re: Maths Paper Time Muck up !!!

Post by testbuster »

This is scandalous. Going Loopy, I feel so sorry for your poor ds. Medway should do something about this. The tests are not administered by teachers (usually council staff on their day off) and are very badly organised. Last year my ds was very upset because various things were not administered properly. Luckily he passed with a good score but it's a very stressful time for the children and the people in charge don't seem to care about them.

To cut 10 mins off the time is unforgiveable. Medway need to either make allowances for the children affected or let them sit a new test. They have not treated these children fairly!
goingloopy
Posts: 84
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:02 am

Re: Maths Paper Time Muck up !!!

Post by goingloopy »

Thank you everyone for your kind words, i am still just a angry as i was when i first posted and have tried in vain to speak to someone at the Medway education dept to be met with the same response, someone will call you back.

I will keep you all updated and hope that this not involve too many children.
sherol1610
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:55 pm

Re: Maths Paper Time Muck up !!!

Post by sherol1610 »

Hi all, I was only told about this shambles by my neighbour today whose son was affected. My son also took the 11+ at Chatham Grammar but has said he was not in the same room. I feel so angry that Medway council can get such a simple task wrong! These children have studied for months, been through sleepless nights and stress in order to do their best, only to be let down by carelessness and stupidity of the adjudicators. The apology by the council is unwanted and frankly, useless. These exams are meant as a measure of our children for furthering their education, this debarcle has clearly shown they aren't, and should never be used to determine a childs future!
witsend
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:25 pm

Re: Maths Paper Time Muck up !!!

Post by witsend »

My daughter was also affected. She didn't tell us what happened until a couple of days afterwards. My husband spoke to head of admissions at Medway on the Monday after the test and was basically told that the mess up should not greatly affect the test results! Apparently.... it would not have made much difference and that they were given the extra time to make up for the mistake. How can they say it will not affect the results - of course it will! We are really angry about it but were told to wait for the results and that the 'mistake' will be taken into account if we have to go to appeal.
After all her hard work towards this test over the past year, this is the last thing our daughter deserves or any of the affected children deserve.
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