11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi

What do contributors to the forum suggest as a "reasonable" pass mark for verbal reasoning tests?

11+ is unusual, because from the outset children do not know what they are aiming for to pass the tests.

We know that most LEAs base their pass marks on the scores of the cohort taking the test and some individual schools base their pass mark on the cohort that takes the test for the school. So the same tests could have two different pass marks, as is the case in Gloucestershire.

If there is an average cohort one year, then a bright cohort the following year, with identical tests the bright cohort pass mark would be higher than the previous years average cohort.

I think that if a child achieves a score of 85% or above then this should entitle them to a Grammar school place.

For the purpose of this topic I am not interested in the logistics of providing Grammar school places.

Regards

Mike

It depends on the ratio grammar/comprehensive places in a specific area, and the nature of the tests.

For identical tests, the pass score is going to be lower in areas with a large proportion of grammar school places than area that only take a small proportion.
If 30% of the total pupils pass, the pass mark will be lower than if 5% pass.

The actual pass score doesn't matter anyway. The 11+ test are not designed to assess pupils, they are designed to rank them in order to select a certain proportion that varies from area to area.

Hi Catherine

What do you think a reasonable pass mark should be??

Irrespective of the logistics, that I was trying to avoid!!

Regards

Mike

Hi Mike,

That was my answer, there is no such thing as a reasonable pass mark, for the reasons that I described.


Regards

Catherine

Hi Catherine

Discarding lowest scores also increases the pass mark.

Regards

Mike

Mike

I thought I'd add thoughts. I believe outside of stats cohorts std scoring etc if a child gets 85% correct that should be enough for him/her to pass. I am pretty sure that in other exams, tests 85% is always a very result and would achive 'A'grades.

Mel

Mike wrote: Discarding lowest scores also increases the pass mark.

Sorry, Mike, but I really don't get this..

Catherine wrote: The actual pass score doesn't matter anyway. The 11+ test are not designed to assess pupils, they are designed to rank them in order to select a certain proportion that varies from area to area.

I agree with this. But if I had to put a figure on the VR score - 85%. In fact, aiming for 85% in practice scores is a good idea all round.

Don't you all think that 85% is an arbitrary number? Why 85%, not 75%, not 95%?

Catherine wrote:Don't you all think that 85% is an arbitrary number? Why 85%, not 75%, not 95%?

I think that you are right. Getting an 84% and not making it through to a Grammar even if no one has achieved more than 85% seems silly. Logistics are everything here, as they constitute the context within which the judgement is made.

Absolute figures are used in the University. But in this case marking guidleines exist which set precisely what constitutes a first class answer in which case the student gets 70% or above. There can be no such context in a VR test at 11+ because we do not know how the pupil reached the answer, only whether he got it wrong or right.

Regards,