11 Plus Exams Forum

Does anyone have any experience on the North London Girls Consortium (or any consortiums) ?

Eg, As we have to choose which school within the groups we prefer to actually sit the exam in, is there any advantage in choosing to physically sit the exams in a school that is considered less academic, as opposed to sitting the exams in one that is a "hot- house".

Basically, if your child's paper is batched up for marking with a group of others where most of the candidates are "hot-house" material, will your child be at a disadvantage as opposed to if she sat the paper in a less academic school (and thus be batched up with less academic candidates) for marking.

I know that the markers will try to be consistent with their markings but they are teachers at the end of the day and they each get a batch of papers to mark - so invariably they will be influenced by the general quality of papers within the batch they are marking.

So could a less academic childs's paper be marked more harshly if she choses to sit the exam in at highly academic school ?

This is important because the marks are circulated within the consortium and is used by each school to decide whether a child is offered a place in each respective school.

Hope this makes some sense ?

Hi, no idea, had never thought of it, perhaps if I had I would have got DD1 to sit at a less academic school!

...if you post this on the independent section...or mod can someone move it? you may get a more informed view.
(done -- WP)

Thanks for the suggestion Mad.

Hopefully will get some views from people in this section of the forum.

ah ha - my area of expertese!

I don't honestly think you'll find they mark to different standards - you couldn't do much with the maths and even the english is mostly very straight forward. Plus I know plenty of bright girls who have sat at all sorts of schools and had much the same outcome in terms of interviews.

I do think however that if you sit at a school it makes them slightly more favourable to you, even though they'll all say it doesn't. Conversely if you don't sit somewhere and you are borderline for their passmark (it won't matter at all if you've clearly passed),they may be less likely to call you for interview. If you sit at the most academic then it is also possible that the less academic won't offer in the end because they think they are only for backup and assume that you won't really be interested. That may be the case but not necessarily. You will however almost certainly get an interview and its important to know why you might like that school over more hothouse options - and to talk about it with your daughter beforehand.

We put DD1 in for both consortium exams - and sat at what you might call the more middle range in terms of academic schools - she was interviewed at all six we'd applyed to (over cautious but we had no idea how she'd do so went right across the board) - and offered all of them. (Tip - you may well end up with a lot of offers - do your homework before hand so you can eliminate some immediately -kind to other applicants on waiting lists and less difficult to make the decision).

There are advantages at sitting at the schools you are most keen on - you get to see them again and it is likely to make your DD feel keener on going there. If you think it's doubtful they'll get in however, it may be good to have had a good experience somewhere else. Incidentally the schools all try hard to make it a good day - my DD's both pointed out some have much better biscuits than others though!

lol @ the biscuits! My son preferred one school over another as they werefed mars bars and played football between exams Funnily enough, making a decsionbetween two schools that also swayed us, as one clearly understood boys better than the other...

Our dd just sat the exam at the school that was easiest to get to on the day. A short and relaxed journey was the most important thing in our view. I don't think it makes any difference to the outcome where you sit the exam.

My dd sat the exam at our preferred school and was offered a place. However, she was also offered a place at other consortium schools we applied for. Therefore, it does not appear to make a difference where the child takes the exam.

Each school has their own academic standard which the child must reach to gain entry. NLCS, CLGS, G & L and SHHS are the hardest academically to get into. Although some of the other schools in the consortium are also very good indeed.

Suspect it would be prudent to sit it at a less academic
school as the most academic one will not care where you sit it.

Well we're going to the one with convenient parking...

Habs Girls?They have a massive car park!