11 Plus Exams Forum

Since the kids have missed so much school do you think there will be any adjustments made to the exam this year? i.e Do you think it will be easier than in previous years or the same?

It's difficult to say but my guess is that there will be no adjustments made to the exam. However, the overall bell curve for marks achieved may shift to the lower side and the pass mark/cut-off score will be set accordingly. Overall there will not be much impact.

Making the exam easier would make no difference. I have been involved in this process for a while now as I have several children - with more to go than have done it. Some years you hear the exam was easier, some years harder. Ultimately though the same children will pass - not the cleverest (as I was once told) but the best prepared.

rocky wrote:It's difficult to say but my guess is that there will be no adjustments made to the exam. However, the overall bell curve for marks achieved may shift to the lower side and the pass mark/cut-off score will be set accordingly. Overall there will not be much impact.

I agree with this - the exam papers are likely to look the same, it is the cut-off that may adjust. Setting easier / harder papers is not really relevant - you could give them all a paper than all of them get 100% or a paper where only 5% can get half marks - the same proportion of children will have to be identified and offered places

I concur - you don't have to get 80% of the test right, you have to outperform 80% of the cohort.

There was certainly a feeling amongst some whose kids had sat Tiffin and Sutton in previous years who then had younger siblings sit them this year that the stage one tests were easier due to Covid. Some children who weren't expected to pass stage one, did so. The end result won't change, but I'm sure there will have been some dashed hopes.