Durham CEM 11+ - So far so good?

[Sunshine 11]

So, if the new test is more aligned with a child's performance in school, what SATS level would indicate a child should in theory obtain entry ? I am working on the assumption, that if my child is achieving a SATS level somewhere in the level 5s by the end of Y5 she is a higher than average child ? (and this is despite having dyslexia and dyspraxic tendancies). Is this a fair assumption. My understanding is the at the end of Y6 and "average" child is expected to achieve SAT level 4A, top 10% is SAT level 5 and top 2% is SAT level 6. Is this correct ?

The disadvantage of having a child at an indie is they don't do SATS so this type of guideline is irrelevant (my children are at state education though, goodness knows how ordinary folk afford indie !)

In our county (Gloucestershire) this will be the first year of CEM. I'm pleased with the change, although being the guinea pig year is a little daunting

[mystery]

I am afraid I think you are being too scientific and taking this at face value.

Politicians say that the CEM test is more closely aligned to school but then who can possibly know? Certainly my children don't use all that advanced vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms and jumbled sentences at school. And if it is aligned to school attainment, is that fair either? Some schools are better than others.

The percentage of children that get level 5 at the end of year 6 is huge. Gloucestershire grammars are super-selective. What centile of the population do you think you have to be in currently to get into a Gloucestershire Grammar?

Think you just have to practise all the stuff on here that people suggest is useful for CEM type exams and hope for the best!

There's nothing that's fair.

[Daogroupie]

Where can we find out the percentage of Year six students that get Level 5. In our primary it was 90% plus but what is it for all of them?

My experience of CEM so far has been that it scares parents. English and Maths are words they understand. With CEM they are throwing money at anything with CEM in the title because they think they cannot teach it. They are of course wrong. Suttons Mocks missed a trick this year by not using the word CEM in their advertising. I am sure they could have popped some cloze in there and claimed the paper was CEM. DG

[berks_mum]

Guardian has some data -

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablo ... -stage-two" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Level 5 or above, 2013 -
Reading - 45%
SPAG - 48%
Maths - 41%

It would be interesting to find out what percentage received Level 5 in all three subjects.

[LeprechaunQueen]

Back to cem testing.

Edited because I have got into the really annoying habit of putting a comma before an "and" why?

Too much time in Oxford?

[Daogroupie]

Better than I thought. I was expecting about 40%. I am astonished by the SPAG figure of 48% in its very first year, as most primary school students I meet are very weak on SPAG. It will be very interesting to see what the figure is this year. I would love to know if this is the section in the QE English paper where most boys lose marks. Back to CEM I wonder how Latymer fared in their first year with it. They are the only school in our neck of the woods that has gone for it lock stock and barrel. HBS just use it as a first round to reduce numbers and QE , St M's and DAO are not touching it. DG

[mystery]

It is the same with all these tests. Unless you follow up the children that were not selected as well as those who are, you can't really analyse how reliable the test is.

My jaded view is that gl assessment got too complacent and c e m have gained some market share. Now there is a competitor prices should get keener.

Why bucks and gl let the silly old bucks test get so farcical I do not know. But jaded me says it was a good thing for the uppers. They contain a lot of high performers in terms of level 5 children. However, maybe changing the test will not make any difference as uNless there are currently a lot of level 4 children in bucks grammars and the old test therefore got it completely wrong, there will still be a lot of level 5 children in bucks uppers whatever the test used.

Why is Cloze, antonyms, synonyms, jumbled sentences and lots of fast maths and nvr such a great test of iq like people think it is? I think it will be a fading fad.

[KenR]

Just to clarify - the CEM test is a bespoke test and can exist in several forms. So it's wrong to think of it as a single type of style of CEM exam.

For example, when Warks introduced the Durham CEM they had specific requirements that were different to the Birmingham KE grammars. (to allow a degree of compatibility with the old Warks 11+ exam) The initial Warks exam was significantly different to the B/Ham exam and the vocab slightly easier. This has since changed and the content converged.

Of course the fundamental difference is often the proportion of numerical, English/verbal and Non verbal questions in each paper as well as the standardisation approach which can be across question type or across papers.

Bucks is different again in order to normalise/adjust to meet the 121 target pass proportion.

[mystery]

Good point - but it looks like GL might do more bespoke products if clients ask them to. e.g. the Kent test this year is going to be a reasoning paper and a second paper testing attainment in maths and English.

[pippi]

These are # of pupils known to be attracting pupil premium and entering Warks grammar school in year 7 (year, total on roll, pupil premium). CEM took over the tests from NFER for 2009 entry apparently.

Code: Select all

2007 454 5
2008 447 <5
2009 454 8
2010 461 7
2011 460 5
2012 468 <5
2013 556 5

The article is rather short on facts. But from the interview with Ros I would guess the number of passes went up in Bledlow Ridge - "the test has delivered a fair result" - but I'm not sure that shows that it "thwarts 'pushy parents' ".

Last autumn, a handful of education authorities in England introduced an exam designed to test a wider range of abilities – ones that are already being taught in primary schools, rather than skills that can be mastered through home tutoring – to make the selection system fairer.

spelling, vocabulary, mathematical problem-solving and non-verbal reasoning.

Carry on the good work KenR.