11 Plus Exams Forum

Not sure if this is the best place to ask, but hopefully there are some KS3 Maths teachers passing by! Our daughter took a Midyis test for setting this week, she has just turned 11 and is starting year 7. I understand the test is intended to be adaptive and was quite surprised about some of the questions she had been given. For instance, one question required an obvious pythagorus application, another was fractional powers! At what age are these topics typically taught in KS3, and would any 10/11 year olds be expected to understand and apply this level of maths knowledge?

I’m not a teacher but my children have done Midyis.
It is used for age 11-14 and is as you say adaptive.
When my DS started in year 7 there were boys with him who had already done gcse maths.
I assume that questions involving Pythagorus etc are in there for the ones that have done lots of maths outside school previously.
Our local schools both state and private don’t set until year 8.
I think that is so that able children who might have gaps for whatever reason aren’t placed in low sets because they haven’t covered some material in primary school.

Moon unit wrote:I think that is so that able children who might have gaps for whatever reason aren’t placed in low sets because they haven’t covered some material in primary school.

Yes, that is my experience also. It give the teachers a chance to assess the DC on ability rather than outside input and frantic over parenting.

I agree with that.
I know children who weren’t strong in maths at all at 11 who have gone on to get firsts in maths degrees but many more who appeared to be high achievers at 11 but plateaued.
It makes no sense to me to set children in year 7 when a cohort will have had vastly different teaching particularly this year.

Thank you - that makes sense. Feedback since has indicated she scored extremely high, but it seems they are taking the approach you suggest, and they are not in sets just yet. I had assumed Midyis was supposed to be an indicator of ability rather than ‘attainment’, but it seems it is very much curriculum based...and if some of the children in year 6 were anything to go by, that level of exposure certainly wasn’t always set by the school! If a child is scoring very high in terms of both ability (IQ) and attainment markers, then I guess that gives a better picture of potential. On previous annual assessment scores, our child was the only one in her high achieving class, that had maximum 141 on CATs for both numeracy & NVR...but she certainly wasn’t the only one that had maximum scores on SATs equivalent assessments..one child I know, had quite low CATs scores, but had been attending Kumon & daily maths tutoring since year 3. So I guess secondary will pare back the petals on those who are ‘over-trained’. Thanks very much for your replies.

MIDYIS used to be a waste of time - we tried it and it did not predict well. So I hope it has improved massively ...

Fischer Family Trust data was better but the Year 7 cohort won't have done KS2 tests - although equivalent tests would probably be more useful imho.