WCGS 2014 - Second Stage - Results today
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Re: WCGS 2014 - Second Stage - Results today
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Last edited by test1 on Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: WCGS 2014 - Second Stage - Results today
It is never enough though - or that's how it seems having seen results coming in from other areas.
Results in the form of likely letters or green zones or type 1 letters aren't greatly reassuring when people realise that applicants last year received identical letters and yet did not get an offer. People only want a likely letter if they know it is restricted to 120 people When they find out 300 others got the same result, they are slightly less happy about the usefulness of this method.
This isn't the schools' fault since scores and ranks are only part of the picture. The main event is now parental preference decisions which will entirely dictate where the qualifying scores will fall and which schools can only estimate.
Each child can only be made one offer so everything hinges on how parents of higher scoring children at every school rank those schools and whether they even intend to take a state school place at all. As some have pointed out, there is a growing trend for more children to apply to these schools every year and for the same children to sit not only every Sutton and Surrey grammar but grammars in many other regions as well. This just makes offering any reasonable or useful predictions that much harder.
The test date changes were never designed to give grammar school applicants a 5 month head start on everyone else in terms of Year 7 destinations. As long as a child hasn't passed more than 5 grammar school exams, they should be able to fill out their form knowing they will get the grammar school they like best out of all those they meet the final qualifying score for (with one space left on the form for a local non selective as a plan B). Being told they are borderline (or worrying that they might only be a low scoring likely rather than a high scoring likely) isn’t particularly helpful in filling out the forms as posts in most other regions demonstrate.
Results in the form of likely letters or green zones or type 1 letters aren't greatly reassuring when people realise that applicants last year received identical letters and yet did not get an offer. People only want a likely letter if they know it is restricted to 120 people When they find out 300 others got the same result, they are slightly less happy about the usefulness of this method.
This isn't the schools' fault since scores and ranks are only part of the picture. The main event is now parental preference decisions which will entirely dictate where the qualifying scores will fall and which schools can only estimate.
Each child can only be made one offer so everything hinges on how parents of higher scoring children at every school rank those schools and whether they even intend to take a state school place at all. As some have pointed out, there is a growing trend for more children to apply to these schools every year and for the same children to sit not only every Sutton and Surrey grammar but grammars in many other regions as well. This just makes offering any reasonable or useful predictions that much harder.
The test date changes were never designed to give grammar school applicants a 5 month head start on everyone else in terms of Year 7 destinations. As long as a child hasn't passed more than 5 grammar school exams, they should be able to fill out their form knowing they will get the grammar school they like best out of all those they meet the final qualifying score for (with one space left on the form for a local non selective as a plan B). Being told they are borderline (or worrying that they might only be a low scoring likely rather than a high scoring likely) isn’t particularly helpful in filling out the forms as posts in most other regions demonstrate.
Re: WCGS 2014 - Second Stage - Results today
edit
Last edited by test1 on Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: WCGS 2014 - Second Stage - Results today
test1 you are absolutely correct.
However a significant number of parents are not following that principle or believe it is possible to be disadvantaged if they do. Some have been guided by out dated playground rumours about schools which discriminate against those that don't place them first and others are badly advised by schools themselves keen to perpetuate these worries for the sake of gaining good reputations and good students.
It is no exaggeration to say, in the regions where scores are known, between one third and half of all people posting about CAFs in recent weeks have misunderstood equal preference rules in some way. This can lead them to be allocated a school they want less than one they would have qualified for. It has been really alarming to see just how many people this affects especially if one assumes that people posting here tend to be more knowledgeable about the admissions system in general.
Parents who have made incorrect assumption about how to fill in the form now that borderline scores and safe scores are known have been well advised but that doesn’t help those who don’t ask here or those who are directly told opposing information by schools and aren’t sure what to believe. Given that equal preference is such a well established principle now, it really is worrying how many struggle with it. I think it is basically counter intuitive for parents to imagine that they could be offered their 3rd preference above somebody who placed it 1st and that there are no tactics which can be employed to increase the odds with a borderline score.
However a significant number of parents are not following that principle or believe it is possible to be disadvantaged if they do. Some have been guided by out dated playground rumours about schools which discriminate against those that don't place them first and others are badly advised by schools themselves keen to perpetuate these worries for the sake of gaining good reputations and good students.
It is no exaggeration to say, in the regions where scores are known, between one third and half of all people posting about CAFs in recent weeks have misunderstood equal preference rules in some way. This can lead them to be allocated a school they want less than one they would have qualified for. It has been really alarming to see just how many people this affects especially if one assumes that people posting here tend to be more knowledgeable about the admissions system in general.
Parents who have made incorrect assumption about how to fill in the form now that borderline scores and safe scores are known have been well advised but that doesn’t help those who don’t ask here or those who are directly told opposing information by schools and aren’t sure what to believe. Given that equal preference is such a well established principle now, it really is worrying how many struggle with it. I think it is basically counter intuitive for parents to imagine that they could be offered their 3rd preference above somebody who placed it 1st and that there are no tactics which can be employed to increase the odds with a borderline score.
