11 Plus Exams Forum

hello , our son missed his bucks 11+ by 1 point - my question is is it worth asking for the paper to be marked again manually ? Do you know of many (or any cases !) where the computer marking has been wrong ?

If the computer had got it wrong and say manually an extra mark was found would this change the standardise score (are the standadised scores not in a range ?) - what i am thinking is i - f a raw score of say 69 is 120 then a raw score of 70 might not be 121 !! I have no idea how it all works !

Can marks go down as well as up !! and finally would it go against us at the appeal.

any help very much appreciated kind regards

I was told by Kent LEA that they cannot adversely find against your child, they can either come back with same score or better - but was also told it's practically unheard of for them to find extra points.

Hello!

HYates wrote:hello , our son missed his bucks 11+ by 1 point - my question is is it worth asking for the paper to be marked again manually ? Do you know of many (or any cases !) where the computer marking has been wrong ?

No!
I can't say it never happens, but it's thought to be exceptional.

If the computer had got it wrong and say manually an extra mark was found would this change the standardise score (are the standadised scores not in a range ?) - what i am thinking is i - f a raw score of say 69 is 120 then a raw score of 70 might not be 121 !! I have no idea how it all works !

I can't say, because we don't know how this particular standardisation was done. More generally, though, it's possible. The standardised marks for a particular raw score could in theory follow this sort of pattern:
month 1: 120
month 2: 120
month 3: 121
month 4: 121
month 5: 122
month 6: 123
month 7: 123
etc.

Can marks go down as well as up !!

In theory, yes, but I don't know whether the LA would follow through on this.

and finally would it go against us at the appeal.

Requesting a remark? No.

Good luck!

Etienne many thanks for your quick responce.

Can you offer some further advise please .

Academically I dont think there is an issue with the appeal - straight 5's last year , good reports , very strong backing from the head etc.

Also a couple of years ago we had a consultant educational psychologist report done (which confirmed what we suspected that he is dyslexic although not 'very dyslexic' ) at the time we did discuss this with the Head but since he was workign above average there was nothing they where willing to do.

My question really realates to other mitigating circumstances - to be honest we dont have any ! we can only offer nerves ! he really wanted to go to the grammer and was ,I think, on the days quite nervous (along with all the other kids ! who likes taking exams !)

speaking with other mums it seems to me that almost everyone that marginally failed has had (or had ) a serious mishap days or a few weeks before the tests ! this has varied from deaths (!) to tension at home , husband drinking , pending divorce, wife drinking , money worries , dead pets .... and so it goes on .

My question is , is it sufficient to say here is the academic record and evidence supported by the school its strong and stable and consistant. He failed on the day by one mark , he was nervous (with a lot of others) , but no body has died in our extended family either human or animal , we have had no other unfortunate accidents and I cant think of any other mitigating circumstances (maybe other than the dyslexia).

kind regards

What was your son's other score?

I can imagine sometimes that appeals panels must get a very strange view of the world... lots of families with crises.

Obviously if there is a bereavement it is a serious and very real matter but parents drinking / having financial problems / stresses etc .... very difficult to prove and unlikely to have been an issue if the child had got a higher score.

reckon saying that you have the academic evidence, a dose of nerves (who can blame him?) +/- history of dyslexia but no other crisis is very honest

I should have mentioned paper 1 120 paper 2 115 - however the head told me they only consider the 'final' mark is that not true ? kind regards

No, it's not true of an appeal. I was hoping the other score might have been a bit higher as it will form part of the evidence.

All the same, 120 is really good, and you don't need much in the way of extenuating circumstances.

I think it might be sufficient to say that your son is slightly dyslexic. Submit the ed. psych report as evidence. You'll have to concede that it's not up to date, but you can explain that it was never followed up as the school wasn't prepared to do anything for someone working 'above average'.

Hope this helps.

many thanks Etienne

i wasnt going to mention this but it may help ? the full result from the EP where

IQ 128, Verbal Comp 125 , perceptual organisation 116, freedom from distractibility 112, procecessing speed 125

we got this done when he was 8 (just) to give us an idea of areas to focus on for improvement - I am not sure if the above are good or bad for teh appeal ?

I should have mentioned that we have twin boys - his twin was about the same on the EP report but he passed both test papers comfortably ! Not sure if I should also mention this ?

kind regards

i am new to this but i would think you could say you want the twins to go to the same school, conveniance etc, this would be another point to raise in your favour - i think