11 Plus Exams Forum

Just spoken to an independant school, they say they aren't a selective school and don't have an enterance exam as such, they do diagnostic testing.

Anyone have any idea what this is?

Thre is an iq test, I forget it's name, and of course these iq tests are always somewhat arbitrary, but it does give them an idea of whereabouts your child sits, and might determine if they are offered a scholarship, or feed into initial groups when they join the school. All very on threatening.

I think this may be CATS tests (look at the NFER website for further details).

As grgygirl says, this is almost certainly CATS tests. Some schools use them to assess the pupils' abilities in different fields. This information is then available to each member of staff. It might offer a teacher some clues.

Some schools do it to ensure that they have a broad enough ability range and enough kids in each ability group before finalising their intake. In this way, these schools aim to make their intake as 'comprehensive' as possible.

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Our school asks all new students to sit a CATS test in order to choose the most suitable classes based on ability. They don't use it as means of selection though.