Easy/difficult conundrum

[Dave1879]

My DD said the test was difficult but I think I read on a different forum that this is not such a bad thing with a CEM test - these dc tend to do well?? I'm not saying that those who found it easy will not make the cut but it's really stressing me out thinking about it. Maybe another double whiskey will do the trick.
Anyone else out there also close to a nervous breakdown!!

[Brum Mum]

Hi,

DS came out saying it was easy until quizzed and then said that some was very hard.

I'm trying not to obsess about it (har har) and just wait for the results.

Moving results day back a week isn't great either - it doesn't give much time for considering what to do on the schools application form.

[Okanagan]

It may be that those who thought it was easy may not have understood the complexity of the question, or jumped to obvious conclusions when the correct answer required a bit more insight, which those who described it as difficult may have recognised. There's a difference between did they find it difficult (personally), or did they think it was a difficult test (for everyone), which tends to be lost in these type of discussions.

[Brum Mum]

Completely agree - and it did concern me. Its a difficult test - that's why I didn't take his comment that it was easy necessarily to be accurate.

[guest201]

My DD came out saying the maths was difficult and the rest was not as hard as she had expected, but hard nevertheless. I have been quite relaxed about it all weekend but I made the mistake of asking her about the test again this morning and the more you analyse it the worse it seems, so I have decided not to talk to her about it again, obviously a few mums were talking about it in the playground this morning, I dont mind talking about it with other people but I think talking to DD about it any more is a mistake because every time she talks about it she seems to have done worse!!!!

[Brum Mum]

There's always the 'compared to what' question in respect of difficulty too isn't there?

I've also stopped asking as the answer changed from one extreme to the other...

[Mums23]

My DD said the test was difficult but I think I read on a different forum that this is not such a bad thing with a CEM test - these dc tend to do well?? I'm not saying that those who found it easy will not make the cut but it's really stressing me out thinking about it. Maybe another double whiskey will do the trick.
Anyone else out there also close to a nervous breakdown!!

I feel the same!!!

[Airina]

It may be that those who thought it was easy may not have understood the complexity of the question, or jumped to obvious conclusions when the correct answer required a bit more insight, which those who described it as difficult may have recognised. There's a difference between did they find it difficult (personally), or did they think it was a difficult test (for everyone), which tends to be lost in these type of discussions.

Another factor to take into account is How selfcritical is the person. It seems to me that girls are generally more selfcritical than the boys.
My DD came out of the piano exam and reported me every little thing which she has done wrong and my DS came out with a broad smile saying that everything went very well. My daughter got a distinction and my son got a pass .
Last year my daughter found the test to be quite difficult (maths in particular) and she got a good score and a place in GSSG.
My friend’s son who got extremely high score of 390 last year said that the test was quite hard.

[poohbear]

My DD came out saying the maths was difficult and the rest was not as hard as she had expected, but hard nevertheless. I have been quite relaxed about it all weekend but I made the mistake of asking her about the test again this morning and the more you analyse it the worse it seems, so I have decided not to talk to her about it again, obviously a few mums were talking about it in the playground this morning, I dont mind talking about it with other people but I think talking to DD about it any more is a mistake because every time she talks about it she seems to have done worse!!!!

yes same here! we are in Bucks and the first year of the CEM test which is so different to the old NVR taken by my older son. It seems a fairer way on the face of it but is it really tutor proof like they claim?
I worry that being in the first cohort we are being Guinea pigs but maybe it will work in our favour? Any views on this from when it was new in Warwickshire?

looking forward to October - hate waiting for results....

[Okanagan]

When CEM was introduced in Warwickshire it wasn't in such widespread use elsewhere (just Birmingham) so there wasn't a great deal of knowledge "in the wild" of what it would include, and it was announced quite late. Those who were around at the time seemed to think that it favoured DIY'ers in the first couple of years.