Does anyone have any experience of special arrangements? As the whole 11 plus process is not very transparent, I wondered whether any element of conscious or sub-conscious bias would creep in and impact negatively on a candidate who had special arrangements, particularly if they had a borderline score (in Stage 2). What do others think?

Quite a vague query. If you have any specific issue, then ask about it clearly.

The results are all processed by computer, which wouldn't know about any special arrangement, I would have thought, the scores are just inserted into a computer programme.

Thank you. Yes, I think that would be the case for Stage 1, but not Stage 2, where I think the results would have to be marked by people.

I just didn't know if it would be held against the candidate in some way if they had special arrangements, e.g. extra time. This may sound a bit conspiracy theorist but I just wanted to get thoughts from the forum.

Hope my response to Scary Mum makes my query clearer.

If a candidate has been given extra time to complete an exam because they have special arrangements, there will be no bias. There is strict governance on who gets a special arrangement and documentary evidence will need to be supplied for this to be granted. Where special arrangements are granted it will ensure candidates get a fair chance.

If a candidate has been given extra time to complete an exam because they have special arrangements, there will be no bias. There is strict governance on who gets a special arrangement and documentary evidence will need to be supplied for this to be granted. Where special arrangements are granted it will ensure candidates get a fair chance.

Markers would not know of the special arrangements. They could only mark the script in front of them, whether completed in normal time allowed, or using extra time or with help from writing helper etc.

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