thank you

[doingmybest]

How small is the age standardisation at Tiffin if an October born boy can score 277/280? Assuming that he scored 100% on the papers that only leaves a 3 mark adjustment for him being 10 months older than the youngest applicants, 1.5 marks per paper. An age adjustment from a normal distribution for CAT scores would be closer to 10 for each paper.

Anyone with a summer boy who just missed out on a place may want to consider asking some questions.

[tiffinboys]

How small is the age standardisation at Tiffin if an October born boy can score 277/280? Assuming that he scored 100% on the papers that only leaves a 3 mark adjustment for him being 10 months older than the youngest applicants, 1.5 marks per paper. An age adjustment from a normal distribution for CAT scores would be closer to 10 for each paper.

Anyone with a summer boy who just missed out on a place may want to consider asking some questions.

As I understand, when age standardizing, marks are not deducted from the older children. Younger children gets some marks added, based on average scores of children born in different months. Some explanation is on this link.

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/advice ... xplanation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More explanation is on NFER site.

277/280 score is really amazing. Probably means doing only one question less correct in both papers combined.

[mariare]

Thanks tiffinboys.

[doingmybest]

I apreciate that the older boys don't have marks deducted as such but they shouldn't be being marked out of a total of 280, they would usually be being marked out of a total of about 260 as confirmed by the link you have posted. i.e. 260 is the maximum mark they can attain. As I understand it the Tiffin age standardisation is calculated according to the performance of the specific cahort who sat the test, and is not the same as the general standard adjustment you see on normal tests used for CAT scores etc. It has always been rumoured to be lower than the standard tests, but 1.5 is very low and I would be interested to know why.
So, now all we need to do is find DCs from all other 11 birth months who have also scored perfect papers and we will be able to work out exactly what the standardisation adjustment is, unless anyone already knows?

[tiffinboys]

As I understand, NFER standardization has range of 70 to 140, with 100 as average. Again my understanding is that Raw score is first adjusted for age differences; younger child gets some marks added if the average of that month or quarter group is lower than the average of older children group. Then the adjusted scores are standardized so that average score is 100, lowest is 70 and the highest would be 140.

Why some one doing perfect paper and getting the highest adjusted score shouldn't be marked at 140?

[doingmybest]

The way it works with normal tests is an August boy scoring 100% as a raw score will have a standardised score of 140, a September boy also scoring 100% as a raw score can only score a maximum of say 130/131. So if there was a normal age adjustment the highest score an October boy could get would be about 132 on each paper giving a total maximum mark of 264.

As an October boy has scores 277 that suggests that the age adjustment for the Tiffin exam is tiny. There could be all kinds of reasons for this, maybe less younger boys enter or only those very likely to score well are entered, which would skew the adjustment factor. But this score does suggest that the Tiffin age adjustment is a long way from the one used for national CAT scores etc, and it would be nice to know why.

[tiffinboys]

That's not how Nfer standaization works. Those who score highest age adjusted score would get 140. Adjusted score is already adjusted for age factor. So why would there be further deductions for September born.

Perhaps you are getting confused with CAT tables. May be some maths/stats guru could explain you further.

[doingmybest]

I have looked at the NFER standardisation tables for converting raw scores to standardised scores and they seem to work the same way, the younger the child the higher the score, and from threads I have read on this website Tiffin should also work this way. I have a maths degree so am very interested how they calculate their distribution curve, and would be very interested to know why there appears to be such a small age adjustment compared to the national tests. I expect that it is skewed by a smaller number of clever summer boys taking the test, but I would like to know. It would be interesting if they released a summary of results by age and gender (as girls sit the same tests).
The whole point of this website is to help the next sets of parents trying for grammars, so if there does appear to be such a small age adjustment it would be good for people to know.

[mariare]

Not sure what the fuss is all about, for someone whose DS has scored 100% in the other grammar school tests (conducted by NFER) and about 99% in the Tiffin exam (again conducted by NFER), I think the key thing to understand is that the type of preparation that was put in, the range of questions / topics covered, the discipline, the hard work and obvious ability. Without putting my maths hat on, I can safely say that we didn't really bother about what the standardization policy was or didn't try to call up Tiffin and ask for more details as it is understood that when I am appearing for a particular exam I am aware of and in agreement with the existing policies. As a guidance to future parents my suggestion would be to focus on your child and try the best for him as at the end of the day your child's ability and hard work is all that matters.

[Guest55]

mariare - Bucks 141 does NOT mean full marks. You can only know that by paying to find out the raw score.