Pass mark

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Carrie

Pass mark

Post by Carrie »

Please can anyone explain to me the disparity in the apparent pass mark for the 11+ tests nationally???

Torbay LEA states that a candidate is successful if they obtain a minimum of 50% of available marks in both the English and Mathematics tests (as well as obtaining the VR score of the 100th candidate).

This contrasts starkly with information about all the other LEAs I have been delving into on this forum. Most parents talk about minimum results of 75 per cent and upwards.

Can somebody please clarify this??? Thanks. :?
jah

Post by jah »

In Birmingham, the exam is used to rank the children in order. Consequently the mark of the last child admitted has the potential to vary year on year, and the last mark for each school will vary according to the popularity of the school.
Alex
Posts: 1097
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:10 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Post by Alex »

Hello Carrie,

The fact is that there is no such thing as AN eleven plus exam. The number of papers, the body which sets them and the type of the exams and their format vary from area to area. The scoring is, therefore, also different from area to area. Add to this that in some places you merely have to pass at the minimum level to obtain a Grammar school place, whereas in others a very limited number of places are allocated in order of the marks obtained and you will see that there is huge variation. That is partly why this website and the pooled knowledge of the contributors to the forum is so very useful!
Jaffa

Grammar Entry Tests

Post by Jaffa »

We are attempting to get our son into one of the South Warwickshire grammar schools, namely Alcester or King Edward VI in Stratford.

Could anyone advise how difficult this might be in terms of the number of children they have to turn away? I presume he'll have to be pretty good to get in?

Or would it be better to try one of the Birmingham grammar schools?

Advice appreciated.
KenR
Posts: 1506
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

Hi Jaffa

Difficult to say for Warwickshire as they used an old Morey Test in the past which was standardised against a national sample and gave odd results. If you check with Warwickshire LEA they may publish figures. This is changing this year (see Warwickshire forum)

For Birmingham Grammars it a bit easier to give the stats as the scores are age standardised for that years entrants. For the Birmingham KE Foundation Grammars the pass mark (the score of the last candidate to get in) is roughly around the 86th percentile (give or take a point) - this means that you have about a 1:7 chance.

I suspect that it won't be that much different for warwickshire.

Regards
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