Hi all, a very Happy New Year. Been away from the forum for a while and felt that I could do with some advice on AGGS entry exam later this year for my DD as she is beginning to take mock tests at home (she's fully home tutored). I know this is perhaps slightly early for a full mock test (2x 45 minutes), but we feel she's kind of ready anyway and fully refreshed after the holidays. So, my question is what would be the target mock score at home (in %) she should be aiming for, in strictly timed as well as not timed (to begin with) conditions? We have both Bond and CGP papers. Many thanks in advance.

I don't think there is really an answer to that.

I think it depends whether you feel that she has covered all of the topics (certainly the Maths questions involve topics that are usually taught in Yr 5 and even Yr 6) and where she does well / struggles. If she's getting 60% but attempting all of the questions (so getting 40% of them wrong) then that's obviously an issue. If she's getting 60% but only getting 60% of the way through the paper because she runs out of time (but getting 100% accuracy if you see what I mean) then with practice and speed that's easier to address.

Have you signed her up for any of the mock exams - I think those are useful as that will give you an idea of where she is compared to the cohort she's taking it with.

Well, I find this slightly surprising, given there’s so many experienced people existing in this forum so I thought there must be plenty of data available.

Of course I understand the point that you are trying to make as these are obvious facts.

Fundamentally what I am looking for is some idea of a realistic target ‘raw percentage score’ (rather than the standardised score, which will be available later in the year via paid mock exams) for available CEM practice papers. For example, CGP’s booklet is saying aim for 80%!

The reason for the standardised scores is to even out yearly differences in the exam & the cohort sitting it. One year you might need, for example 70%, another 80% ( I have no idea about your area), but these might give the same standardised scores. Some areas do release raw results as well, have you asked?

I actually didn't mean a standardised score, that doesn't really help. I meant that most of the mock exam companies will give you a score for your daughter (whether thats a raw score or a standardised score) and the average of the cohort taking the mock. She needs to be well ahead of the average. I know thats not what you want to hear but she's "competing" against the cohort, not some arbitary score.

High 70s - 80% is probably in the right ball park though.

I agree with mandy21. When my daughter did her mock tests she was given her % score and also the average for the students sitting the same test for comparison. Generally my daughter was getting around 70% with her first mock tests (taken May/June time year 5) however this increased a little on the later tests in the summer. She went on to score well over the pass mark for all the Trafford exams. She didn't do any CGP/Bond mocks though - they were tests written by her tutor.

Hi, I'm not in your area nor a tutor, but would there be any value in getting your DC "assessed" as a one off by a reputable tutor to find out where they are up to?

OED

Hi O250,

I'm not sure if this addresses your question, but the tutor we used for several months prior to the entrance exam said that, based on her experience of previous pupils, a score of 70+% is a good indicator of passing. This seemed a little low to me.

If you think of a non-standardised test (and I know these aren't that and this is a very rough rule of thumb, but) with one point allocated to each of the 423 questions, a score of 334 would equate to 78.96%. For AGGS I would aim higher.

As others have said, at this stage you would do well to focus on any problem areas so that your daughter gains in confidence; a mock to help evaluate the situation [edit: by a 'reputable tutor'*] would help with that. Practice with timing and 'strategy' would come next, but I wouldn't worry about timing until the months before the exam - your daughter's score will increase plenty between now and then.

Rest and fun and important too for you and for her.

*simply because they will provide a detailed report breaking down your child's performance in key subject areas.

‘Standardised score’ works differently; one would need the ‘mean’ and ‘standard deviation’ data for a given cohort to correctly calculate this. Just looking at the AGGS data though, I can see some interesting facts – more than a quarter of the cohort (who took the exam last year) passed, i.e. got 334 or more. This means, ‘statistically’ speaking, in addition to ‘above average’, over 10% of the cohort who passed are ‘average’. Therefore, the cut-off ‘raw score’ is perhaps not very high and I wouldn’t be surprised, if it is below 70%.

I don't think that is necessarily true. You're missing the crucial fact that lots of parents don't put their children through the exam, knowing that they probably wouldn't pass (and therefore not putting them through the inevitably stressful process) or not wanting them to attend the school / a grammar school. I would say probably 30% of the children at my DD's school didn't sit any exams.

So, arguably the children who are put in for the exam are likely to be above average to start with. Of those, 25% or thereabouts pass. That's not the same as 25% of the overall Yr 6 female cohort throughout Trafford (+ surrounding areas).