Interesting comparison if different 11plus test timing

[mystery]

Average time in seconds per question

Kent - last year
Vr 38s. Nvr 30s maths 72s

Sw herts consortium last year
Vr 27s maths 60s

Bexley c e m practice paper this year
Comp 52s missing words 38s. Matching words 15 s. nvr 24 s. numerical a 52s numerical b 45s
Numerical b require numbers to be marked off on the multichoice answer sheet and digits written on another sheet

Bucks c e m real test this year 27 seconds - no breakdown available yet of numbers of questions in each section. This is an average over all question types. Were there really 203 questions in 90 mins?

Last year kent had 202 questions in 146 mins from gl assessment.


Anyone got anything more to add to this?

[Okanagan]

27 seconds/question for fully multiple choice CEM sounds about right.
Warwickshire 2012 - 29 seconds/question average
Warwickshire 2010 - 28 seconds/question average
And large parts of the Warwickshire test are standard format.

[yoyo123]

but surely you compete against people in your own area? ( queue OOC comments)

Pupils in Kent are unlikely to be sitting Warks tests

[mystery]

27 seconds/question for fully multiple choice CEM sounds about right.
Warwickshire 2012 - 29 seconds/question average
Warwickshire 2010 - 28 seconds/question average
And large parts of the Warwickshire test are standard format.

Thanks, okanagan. In Warwickshire do they do as many as 202 questions in one morning or afternoon? Do you think that the timings for the different types of questions used in the bexley practice test (see above) are typical for c e m across the regions? If the average question time is 27 seconds across all the tested disciplines does this mean, I wonder, that there are far more of the 15 second type than the other longer type, thus bringing down the average response time.

Edit: just seen your answer on another region re. More detail of timing in warks test and comparison to bexley practice timings. Looks like bexley practice timings are not typical of the real thing in warks or bucks - bexley practice timing are more relaxed.

Hopefully then the different sections are weighted differently in the scoring so that the child's performance in the 15 second questions (quick fire vocabulary) does not outweigh their performance in the other sections.



Hi Yoyo, yes few people are likely to take tests in geographic areas that are a long way apart, and yes you do compete against people in your own area / school. However, in terms of less parochial thinking, the people who write the c e m mocks and the g l mocks, for sites such as this must have some idea of relative timings etc used in different areas over the years, Otherwise they could not be reasonably sure that their product was based on the information available at the time. Some parents might be similarly interested. We are all different!

[Okanagan]

Yes Warwickshire tests are two papers, pretty well back to back, with just a short break between them. More of the short questions, but each of the three types carries 1/3 of the weight, regardless of the number of actual questions.

[mystery]

Ah thanks. So it sounds like Bucks this year and Warks (although not multichoice throughout) have some design similarities. Are the Warks children as surprised by it as it sounds like some Bucks children were this year? Or I wonder if in Bucks the unhappy element was no different from usual. As a first time parent it would be hard for a parent to know - and of course it could differ from test centre to test centre. Exam bad feelings can be catching.

[JamesDean]

It's my understanding that Warks changed their format a number of years ago, so we were prepared (if that's possible with CEM) for this format and timing of the sections.

I don't know about Bucks - is this a new format for this year?

JD

[Okanagan]

Haven't heard any complaints here. It's probably just that Bucks have something different this year to last.

[mystery]

Do you find kids getting very tired by the end of the second paper? 200 odd questions is a lot at that age. I think in Kent they are hoping to do a written task the same day as two papers as well. At the moment Kent has two GL papers one morning, a third GL paper and the writing task the next day. But the number of questions is lower and not sure if the perceived timepressure and awareness of getting things wrong is so high as some parents seem to feel the C E M papers seem to present.

I guess you know if you knew a vocab word or not, for example, but you could do a maths question, get one of the multichoice answers, and think you got it right.

[JamesDean]

DS (and most of them) came out looking slightly dazed and was not up for much discussion about what had happened. But I had warned him that time would be very tight and not to expect to finish every section (if any). Within a couple of hours (and after a good lunch!) he was back to his normal self

JD