CGP and GLAss Practise Paper Results for AGSB and SGS

[Brainfreeze]

I thought I would post some data from our DIY prep. Am hoping it may be of assistance to those parents beginning their journey for Sep 2017 entry. While DS and I were on our journey, I found it really difficult to assess his progress based on his practise paper results. So I am posting our data so that it may be of use to some one else.

Things to note:

1) CGP CEM papers state that you should be aiming for 80%. This was a cause of real stress for me because sometimes DS was nowhere near that. As you can see below – he passed comfortably despite marks as low as 60%.
2) I thought that all GL Assessment papers were of the same difficulty level. It was only when DS NVR scores went down that I realised that papers 1-4 have 5 sections, whereas papers 5-8 have 6 sections.
3) Where I have written ‘Timed By Section’, this means I sat with DS and administered the paper as it would be administered in the exam. So I would open section 1, go through the example with him and time him just for that section. Only allowed him to go back and check answers in that section during the timing for that section.
4) We started our prep 12 months in advance. Practise papers were not started until Easter.

Paper Result % Time Taken
GL Ass Maths Paper 2 70% 50m
GL Ass Maths Paper 3 70% 50m
GL Ass Maths Paper 4 80% 45m
GL Ass Maths Paper 6 76% 53m
GL Ass Maths Paper 7 78% 42m
GL Ass Maths Paper 8 84% 50m
GL Ass Maths Paper 1 86% 50m
GL Ass Maths Paper 5 80% 50m
GL Ass NVR Paper 2 87% 45m
GL Ass NVR Paper 3 77% ?
GL Ass NVR Paper 4 93% 50m
GL Ass NVR Paper 6 64% 70m
GL Ass NVR Paper 7 75% 70m
GL Ass NVR Paper 8 81% 75m
GL Ass NVR Paper 1 75% Timed by Section
GL Ass NVR Paper 5 86% Timed by Section
GL Ass VR Paper 2 65% ?
GL Ass VR Paper 3 88% 60m
GL Ass VR Paper 4 89% 60m
GL Ass VR Paper 6 84% 50m
GL Ass VR Paper 7 71% 45m
GL Ass VR Paper 8 74% 50m
GL Ass VR Paper 1 94% 50m
GL Ass VR Paper 5 94% 50m
CEM Pack 1 A1 67%
CEM Pack 1 A2 91% 55m
CEM Pack 1 B1 63% 45m
CEM Pack 1 B2 90% 60m
CEM Pack 2 A1 74% 70m
CEM Pack 2 A2 83% 70m
CEM Pack 2 B1 69% 43m
CEM Pack 2 B2 69% 70m
CEM Pack 3 A1 60% Timed by Section
CEM Pack 3 A2 76% Timed by Section
CEM Pack 3 B1 75% Timed by Section
CEM Pack 3 B2 63% Timed by Section


DS passed AGSB with 367 (VR 112 NVR 113 Maths 139) and SGS with 359. Unfortunately I don’t have raw scores, but this gives you a ball park idea.

I hope this helps at least one person to avoid the feeling that you are aiming in the dark!

Would be interested to know if anyone else has any info to add.

[Mandy21]

Nothing to add except Wow! That is quite impressive to have completed all of those tests and to have been so particular in keeping a record etc (we seemed to just be swallowed by a mass of paper). So well done to you and to your DS.

By the way, 139 on that Maths (given that the highest possible score is 141) means that he probably got 49/50. Now that is impressive

[Brainfreeze]

Thanks Mandy - spreadsheets are the last salvation of a desperate parent.

Actually his Maths result cant mean he got 49/50 since he came out of the exam telling me he didn't even finish the Maths paper. In fact he estimated 10-15 unanswered questions. When he said that I thought that was his chance gone. But after reading other DC verdict on this forum, I realised that a lot of DC had found the last 10 questions of the Maths paper pretty difficult.

It looks like he scored 99% in Maths but he can't have scored over 70% really. I am wondering if 141 is the score of the highest scoring Maths result?

Anyone any more clues about standardised scores?

[Mandy21]

Yes, if you go through all of the explanation as to how they arrive at the result, each of the 3 papers (even though they have a different number of questions) is out of 141. So the maximum score for the exam is 3 x 141, 423.

Either he got further that he thought he had (did he think there were 60 questions for example) or did he have time to guess the questions he didn't get to and was very lucky?

I can't imagine that he only answered 35-40 of the 50 questions and a standardised score came out at 139/141.

[bookaddict]

Congratulations Brainfreeze on some very hard work by your DS and yourself!

The positivity about your post is that home (DIY) tutoring can be done. Though it's obvious you have put a lot of effort into helping your son.

Well done!

[Brainfreeze]

Thank you bookaddict. DIY definitely can be successful but as you say, it does take a lot of time and effort. I couldn't have achieved this if I wasn't self employed.

Mandy, I will double check with him, but he knew the exam was 50 questions. It really threw him that he struggled to finish the Maths when normally this is his favourite area. My thinking is that there were probably many boys who didn't finish it and therefore the standardised score adapted accordingly. So in an easier exam, 80% may have been required for 139 but since it was particularly hard, 70% got him 139.

He told me after the exam that he didn't finish mAths or NVR. I asked him how many maths questions he had missed out and he said 'about 15'. Once he saw the shocked look on my face, he quickly revised the number to 'more like 10'. Probably because he needed me to pick my jaw up from the floor ha ha.

I then asked him if he had at least guessed them. He said 'no, because the exam finished 3 minutes before he expected and he was going to use the last 2 mins to guess answers'.

With NVR he said he ran out of time for both 10 min sections.

He finished VR apparently.

He mentioned that he had noticed other boys turning pages faster than him which made him think they were finding it a lot easier than he was. I did reassure him that it could have meant they were missing questions out?

It's a magical mystical thing, is standardisation...

[Mandy21]

The fab thing is that it doesn't matter!! It's a great score however they calculated it!

[Cass1]

Thank you brain freeze. I have actually printed that off. I am DIYing my son for SGS. Those figures will be very useful when doing the tests. Going through the study books mostly at the moment. I keep reading "so-and-so pack is really hard compared to another pack" so those figures will stop me freaking out if we get different results to expected.

I'd heard that in SGS they told the children sitting the exam when they had one minute left. I was going to get my son to use this time to quickly fill in a random answer for unanswered questions. Have I got it wrong?

[Brainfreeze]

Thanks Cass1. I do believe they got time warnings for some papers but will double check with DS in the morning.

Good luck with your journey. Keep us updated.

[Cass1]

Would be great to know. Thanks