Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

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MAZER66
Posts: 49
Joined: Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:54 pm

Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

Post by MAZER66 »

Does anyone know what would be a reasonable % pass mark on the paper 2 maths paper for Withington Girls' School (Manchester) , ? do they really expect 10-11yr olds to have that level of knowlegde?? my friend's son who is expected to get an A* this yr found some question he could not do!! :(
hermanmunster
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Re: Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

Post by hermanmunster »

Not sure what is the paper but having seen some indie maths exams I have noticed that the questions seem to get harder and some are eye watering and require quite an ability to work things out on the hoof rather than being taught to do the test. Suspect at some schools these sorts of things are the ones that differentiate the scholarships
On the BBC league table site, Withington sits between Loughborough and Hampton schools. I Know Loughborough quite well and would say it was non super selective GS level (though others may disagree..)
MAZER66
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Joined: Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:54 pm

Re: Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

Post by MAZER66 »

thanks for that, WGS papers are not available on- line and have to be purchased(and also copyrighted) but I can tell you it makes MGS (Manchester Grammar School For Boys) considered to be the toughest paper 2 exams at 11+ (that can be downloaded from the school website) seem like "a walk in the park" in comparision!! :o
Good news is that the girl in question, who I am helping with her preparation, has already passes the Atrincham Girl's Grammar School, which standardises againt it's own cohert not the the national cohort, with a very good mark, but it is rather hard to see a girl crying because she is not scoring her usual 95%+ (has managed between 55%-60% in paper 2 and 90% in paper 1)and now refusing to sit the exam!!
I only have experience of 11+ GL papers so am unable to reassure honesty if she is on target or not, and admission officer not very helpful considering she is from a state school and local prep schools would have historical information on this type of thing :evil:
Jess
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Re: Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

Post by Jess »

It's so difficult to say what the pass-marks are in the Indie exams. I know that when I ordered the MGS ones a few years ago (they weren't available to download then) the registrar said that over 50% on their paper 2 would be considered a good mark (and be a pass).

I'm currently prepping my DS for exams in January. He's doing some full papers, but I'm also sitting with him and talking through some of the more difficult questions on the most difficult papers (WGS, MGS, SPGS). I suspect that with the scholarship type questions, they are not necessarily expecting DC to get the right answer, they're also looking at how they approach it and attempt to work their way through the problem.
MAZER66
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Re: Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

Post by MAZER66 »

Jess wrote:the registrar said that over 50% on their paper 2 would be considered a good mark (and be a pass).
Thanks Jess thats reassuring, the child is a natural mathematician (imo) one of the best I have come across recently, however her working out is all over the place! I think we will need to work on her showing her solutions in a methodical logical way on paper, so she can gain the max marks even if she gets the question wrong.
Jess
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Re: Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

Post by Jess »

That sounds like a sensible approach. And I'm sure that schools such as WGS are very good at spotting ability.

My DS is much the same where his working out is concerned. Sometimes there isn't any, or only a few random-looking numbers. I think he's an able mathematician too, but prone to really silly mistakes. So he'll do the hard part, then make a really basic error adding up or something. Any tips?!
twelveminus
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Re: Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

Post by twelveminus »

Have you looked at the Junior Maths Challenge and Junior Maths Olympia papers?

Although they are aimed at Y7 and Y8, much is within the grasp of an able Y6er, and they are intended to test the ability to think, especially on the Olympiad, not just to perform maths operations by rote.

Solutions on their website:

http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/individ ... -olympiad/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
MAZER66
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Re: Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

Post by MAZER66 »

Cheers Twelveminus, the young lady is already familiar with the JMC and the PMC challenges, she's already through to the second part of the JMC and is therefore familiar with the question types(sorry I meant the PMC She's good but not that good!! must learn to proof read my posts), which she enjoys immensely. However, my main priority at the moment is to get her to show her methodology on paper for complex, multi-step problems. I, like Jess, would love to have some input on how to achieve this with a child who tends to solve problems instinctively and by that I mean, what may seem self evident to her, is often not self evident to mere mortals like myself.

What do people out there in the ether think regarding teaching her some computer coding, which would force her to think in tiny, logical steps? Just a thought. Comments welcome.
Last edited by MAZER66 on Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:38 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Reading Mum
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Re: Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

Post by Reading Mum »

we have been doing some Scratch programming with DD as it forces her to think in logical steps
MAZER66
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Re: Withington Girls' School maths paper 2

Post by MAZER66 »

Reading Mum wrote:we have been doing some Scratch programming with DD as it forces her to think in logical steps
Thanks for that, "Reading Mum", we have tried some computing, she took to it as a fish to water but it made absolutely no difference to showing her methodology. I think she is such an intuitive mathematician that even she is not sure how she solves the problems!!

But the good news is, her paper 2 marks have come up to 76% - 78% and her paper 1 marks are now upper 90's, so it looks like she has a realistic chance of being a scholarship candidate, if she can perform on the day. In my opinion, she should be aiming for scholarship but time is short as the exam takes place on the fourteenth of this month and then she has The Grange School exam on the 2nd of February, where her brother already attends and she would automatically get a 10% discount (as a sibling) and a scholarship would entitle her to a a further 20% off fees, which is what I assume her parents are paying my services for. So no pressure then!!
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