Wandsworth test results

[mynameisbond]

For any of you waiting for the outcome of the above results I have heard today that they are available by phoning Wandsworth Council. My friend told me that they will give you the results but no further info - if any of you are interested?

[Scoopy19]

For those who are interested, the phone number is 020 8871 7316. They will give you your childs VR and NVR scores. They are both out of 141 so a total of 282 is available.

[mynameisbond]

Hi Scoopy19 - any idea what sort of standardised score you need to be looking at to be offered a place via the test (ie out of catchment) for Graveney ? I had heard you needed to score 100% to be offered in the first round. The test results aren't age standardised and I know there were 80 questions in each NVR and VR so any mathematicians out there want to hazard a guess what you need to be scoring to gain say 95% ? Would be very grateful if anyone could attempt the maths !

many thanks

[Scoopy19]

Hi mynameisbond

The scores are age standardised but locally standardised not national standardised (as with most secondary school admissions). The scoring range is 69-141 per paper. At no point are scores converted into or expressed as percentages by the LA therefore % wise it is difficult to make a direct comparison on what % is required as it depends on the age of the child and the rest of the children taking the test.

It may be that the pass mark for OOC was 100% on the first round but I do know people who got in with a mere 97.8% on the second round last year.

What I would say however is that I think it is slightly easier to achieve a better score on the Wandsworth test than for the grammars. This may be for a number of reasons - the test is taken by all children in Wandsworth, the test is also taken by children out of borough who need to take the test to get into other Wandworth schools eg Chesnut Grove, Burntwood Girls and therefore there will be a far greater mix of abilities taking the test and with local age standardisation, this will put the score up. My DD is a case in point, she achieved 141 for NVR and 141 for VR ie 100% and when I was told the score I laughed because I could not believe it. She has never achieved 100% on any practice paper and is going for the grammars also. There are many kids I know who failed to get into any of the selective grammars but still managed to get into Graveney. That's not to decry Graveney and the selective stream as it is a great school (it is indeed one of our choices) but just to point out that it is difficult to get in to OOC but not as difficult as the grammars.

What I would also say is that the 63 spaces (25% of overall spaces) are not reserved for OOC. If the top 63 also happen to be in catchement, they get the 63 selective spaces.

I hope that helps.

[ClappedOutMum]

Just wondering if someone can explain "standardised scores" in a way that I can understand?

From what I can gather from the above: 100% does not actually mean getting all the questions right? Or does it?

Confused!

[scary mum]

If you search on here on standardised scores you will find loads of threads. I'll see if I can find one and will post the link. Also go to the Nfer website. Basically all the children born in the same month are put in a pot together and their scores are plotted on a bell shaped curve to give 100 as the mean score (moving slightly onto dodgy ground here but it's something like this) and 69-141 as the range. You could score 141 and not get them all correct. There is no such thing as a percentage on a standardised score, but yes a score of 141 might not mean you got 100%, particularly if the child is July/August born. It means that children are only compared to others of the same age, so a score of , for eg, 130 for a November child will not necessarily be the same number of correct answewrs as a June born child. It might be but you don't know.

Try this: http://www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/research/ass ... scores.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ClappedOutMum]

Thanks, I did that. Very useful. I had misunderstood completely .

I think therefore it is impossible to "get" 100%. The most you can "get" is 99% (meaning you are in the top 99 percentile)!

This all makes Graveney admission sound much more achievable than I had (perhaps naively) thought. It seems as if the fabled 98% (the cut-off on offer day) isn't as hard as it sounds (although still hard, not so hard IYSWIM). If I understand correctly: in a test which has say 160 questions - I had thought 98% meant only making four mistakes! But in fact, it seems it means being in the top 2 percentile. And that also adjusted for age.

And that doesn't even mean the top 2 percent of applicants for Graveney on selective criteria. Its the top 2% of all the Wandsworth test entrants - and all Wandsworth year 6 students enter and all others from out of bourough who want a Wandsworth secondary (not just Graveney). So there must be, what?, 10,000 children of all abilities doing the test.

I am encouraged!

Or do I misunderstand?