11 Plus Exams Forum

Any advice would be welcome. I bought some new 'exam grade' steadler pencils prior to the exam, put 5 of them in her pencil case as we/she didn't want the distraction of sharpening during the exam. The pencils were all taken off her in the exam room, and she was given one pencil (they said they had no extras) which she said broke 7 times at least during her tests. She didn't finish her non-verbal (40 questions in 20 minutes) and had to scribble in guesses for 6 questions. Non-verbal has always been her strongest subject. I wrote a letter in straight after the exam explaining what had happened. Her results were 10 marks short of the qualifying score of 334. Shall I appeal?

The school is AGGS, in case anyone has any experience?

How many pencils did the other kids in the room have - do you know if they had the same?

You take your own in, most would have more than a couple.

That sounds wrong. They should have left her with a couple of her own pencils, and not given an inferior one. Little things like that that can upset an already nervous child, and for the invigilator to do it.....

Just a thought, but at DDs school rubbers are not allowed in the exam, so children with rubbers on the end of their pencils would have had them taken away.

If this isn't the issue with this case, then I think the op has every reason to be annoyed.

onthebrink wrote:Shall I appeal?

Whether or not to appeal depends on the strength of the academic evidence you can put forward ............
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/appeal ... cation#b11" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Please go in with your eyes wide open AGGS is a very difficult one to suceed with non qualification. We appealed 2 years ago for non qual and despite DD being 5a maths and English predicted level 6s (which she did get and was L7 mid year in Year7) a huge distraction in her maths exam which was recorded by the invigilator they still deemed her not of the academic standard required. I am also aware of other cases where a ed psych report was given in addition to other academic evidence of very high ability with the same result. Another case had well documented medical reasons for underperformance along with great academic evidence again with same result. Appeal by all means to remove any what ifs however be aware how difficult it is to win regarding non qual.