Reply from Wallington Boys on Exam 11/10 2014 on Maths Error

[Ladymuck]

Deleted by user.

[tiffinboys]

In the group which didn't have full paper, did none of the children wasted time before some one discovered that paper was incomplete? Some would have spent some time trying to answer the incomplete question and some would have been told to ignore that question even before they came up to that point.

[Daogroupie]

How many questions were there? Why would any student spend ten minutes on one questions resulting in not having time to do more than one question that was after this one? Surely parents and tutors would have advised on exam technique in exams? Chase the total marks not the questions. DG

[indiemom]

I think there were 10 questions to be answered within 40 mins or so.
It was not multiple part question, looks to me something more in line with some independent style question.
The problem with Sutton schools is that the second phase pattern (both english and maths) are mostly not known, school sets their own paper so can not be tutored for I believe.
Anyway by the time the DSs were going for the exams, we didn't have the enthusiasm to prepare for it, just went with the flow

[panicattack]

This was the second stage exams which only the higher ability children (or at least those who passed the SET) sat. Fine margins will decide who gets a place. People sit the exam on the basis it's a straight fight between all sitting the exam, not those sitting in a certain room at a certain time. Irrespective of "Question4Gate", 40 minutes for many multi part questions is ludicrous. No doubt kids were encouraged to show workings as well.

I can see why the school has reached this decision for pragmatic reasons but everyone wants a fair exam system. The school's decision may not make much difference but it could make a slight difference and that's essentially unfair.

They should also tell everyone sitting the exam what has happened for complete transparency and people can have their onw view. It's an unfortunate position for the school to be in - I have some sympathy for them though the 2 part tests were supposed to make it easier for schools to run these tests. I recall there were long delays a few 3 years ago because of copying problems.

I would hope they will let everyone know how this is being handled with an email to all who've taken the test and the explanation on the admissions website (not checked this morning so it might be there).

[YoungSuccess]

How many questions were there? Why would any student spend ten minutes on one questions resulting in not having time to do more than one question that was after this one? Surely parents and tutors would have advised on exam technique in exams? Chase the total marks not the questions. DG

Each of the 10 question had sub-questions (some up to 10 sub-questions according to DS) and that's why most students got completely caught. In my DS room, according to DS, they all said they didn't manage do more than 50% - that was the extent of the impact of the format. The fact that children were encouraged to show workings as well made it worst. It looks like the paper was designed to "CULL" ! Q 4 was especially tricky according to DS - involving diagrams and lots of "sorting". I would like to elaborate here but not sure if I should.

[Ladymuck]

Deleted by user.

[nameforum]

Good morning all,

I believe that retesting over 900 boys is the worst possible solution and would be completely unfair on already stressed families and children and a nightmare to administer.The error has only had an impact on one room and any action should surely be limited to that one room. That is not to say that the children in this room should not be treated fairly or that the situation is ideal but I believe the headmasters solution does in fact provide as fair a test as possible. It is also important that we do not conflate separate issues here. For example, the fact that some children found the the maths paper very testing is an issue for discussion on another day.

[loopylou]

It looks like the paper was designed to "CULL" !

In a way it is perhaps
All of the children invited to stage 2 are bright boys who one would expect to do very well in any maths test pegged to the Year 5 curriculum with a comfortable amount of time for each question. They may all score full or nearly full marks under such circumstances in fact which would be unhelpful for the purposes of a stage 2 test.
It is understandable that schools need to shift up a notch when devising exams for boys who have already passed stage 1 - assuming that stage 1 is set at a moderately ambitious primary school level.

If you meant cull in the sense of weeding people out unfairly though, I do think Wallington have done the best they could with the time they had left. Ladymuck is right that each year some children have more challenging experiences in their 11+ exam than others: people have reported someone sobbing uncontrollably through one whole paper and being taken in and out of the hall at frequent periods. Others have had fire alarms go off or delays which meant their child got no toilet break or no chance to eat at any point in 5 hours. Sometimes one group is released before another and causes lots of noise outside. These things ideally would not happen but mistakes and disruptions are common when dealing with so many papers and so many children.

[tiffinboys]

Next year, the children appearing for 11+ maths would be expected to have done GCSE maths atleast to Foundation level.

It is worrying that schools start testing to levels not expected of 10 - 11 years old. They should not be tested to level 6 or higher at this stage. Neither should the paper be not-doable. Such tests would increase coaching to KS3 levels, to say the least.