what is age standardisation and how does it work?

[hassan2go]

Hello,
Can anyone please enlighten me by explaining what is a standardisation in 11 plus exam exam marking and how does it work?
thanking in advance.

[spanner]

The aim of age standardisation is to remove the advantage that the older children in the year have just by being older. So for example, children born in September will have been exposed to much more vocabulary than children born in August, which would give them an advantage in the VR papers.
I'm sure the process differs for each exam board but put very simply, if children born in August score on average 4 points lower than children born in September, then they would add 4 points to the score of all the August children.

[tiffinboys]

As far as I know, nothing is added or subtracted. Age standardisation is to compare child born in September to be compared with children born in the same month. Child born in August is compared with children born in August. Likewise for other months.

[scary mum]

The aim of age standardisation is to remove the advantage that the older children in the year have just by being older. So for example, children born in September will have been exposed to much more vocabulary than children born in August, which would give them an advantage in the VR papers.
I'm sure the process differs for each exam board but put very simply, if children born in August score on average 4 points lower than children born in September, then they would add 4 points to the score of all the August children.

No, that is not correct. No points are added or taken away. Please see this explanation
In a nutshell, children are only compared with those born in the same month. Their scores are plotted on a standard curve. It may be that the raw score for a particular standardised score is lower for younger children, but it depends on the cohort.

[ToadMum]

Just to be different, the CSSE takes a different approach (or at least has done, since introducing age standardisation a few years back):

https://csse.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ ... -Entry.pdf

In each case the calculation proceeds as follows:
Standardised score = (((raw score - )  )  15) + 100
Total score = 15 
[(standardised Mathematics + “days younger”  Maths age adjustment) +
(standardised English + “days younger”  English age adjustment)]
where “days younger” is calculated as d-o-b minus 01/09/2008.
Thus a candidate, born on 01/09/2008, with average marks on each paper will obtain a total
of 300, comprising the results in the two papers weighted 1:1.

(The actual adjustments required are given in the document).