Newbie queries

[gulat]

DD in Year 5 plans to sit for the Slough Consortium exams. I had a few queries which I would appreciate if any experienced parents could respond to:
- Slough Consortium has 2 papers of 45 - 50 mins duration. How many questions in each paper (Is this fixed or it varies)
- Is the child timed for the entire paper or for each section (VR, Num. Reasoning and NVR)
- Do each of the section have the same number of questions. For e.g. if paper has 90 Qs, then 30 VR, 30 Num Reasoning and 30 NVR?
- Are the 3 category (VR, NR, NVR) of questions present in both papers.
- What scores are used in the standardization process (Sum of the marks of the 2 papers, Average or max of 2 papers)

I know Allocatiom day for next year is still some way away but wanted to understand the Waiting list process. If I have put School A and School B in the CAF, with School A has higher pref then School B and DD is offered School B. Can I accept School B, but still request DD to be on the waiting list of School A on the chance that she may get into School A OR does acceptance of a place automatically nullifies your position on the waiting list

Many thanks in anticipation of a response

[aliportico]

If I have put School A and School B in the CAF, with School A has higher pref then School B and DD is offered School B. Can I accept School B, but still request DD to be on the waiting list of School A on the chance that she may get into School A

Yes

[sonasona]

Hi gulat,

The new style Slough consortium or Reading tests are now effectively the 'Berkshire Consortium' tests. You are right in that there are 2 papers, both of which roughly have more than 100 questions but no more than 120 per paper. As you know, this is new to all of us, therefore we been trying to gauge topics/timings/question numbers from other CEM regions.

What we do know is that each paper will consist of many mini-e sections, for example short maths, long maths, Cloze etc. Each of these mini-sections will be timed individually and you can't go back to any previous sections. We've been advised that the timings are extremely tight and it's likely all candidates won't finish all of the sections.

The number of questions per topic/section will vary and we think this is what CEM change every year to shuffle up the tests and probably to keep us all guessing!

Certainly all 3 topics you mention will be present in some shape or the other, it is essentially VR and NVR with the real life scenarios thrown in, your everyday numerical problems and true vocabulary and grammar.

We should know a bit more about the standardisation process from tomorrow but I would have thought it would be each paper marked, then age standardised, then averaged to give final standardised score just like Slough and Reading did previously with NFER type papers.

One thing I've been thinking about the Reading & Slough test this year is, that you (the parent) has the option to tick either Reading or Slough or both schools on your entrance forms (assuming you are in catchment for both). This would mean if you tick both towns, then you are being standardised against both cohorts (for the respective schools in those towns). I suspect this will later on have some bearing on the final qualification scores for both towns. For example, if Reading Boys and Kendrick girls score highly and have ticked both towns on their forms, then this will raise the bar for Slough cohort, likewise if Slough candidates tick Reading and score highly then the cohort changes again......sorry if I'm not making sense but I figure I'm trying to say it's probably worth making the right choice on the form in everyone's interest!

Feel free to comment, like I said, it's all new to us.

Sona

[rabbie burns]

In Birmingham you get a standardised score for each paper and these are added together to give the total score e.g. Paper 1 107, paper 2 124, total 231. Assume all are done the same but who knows. Good luck.

[aliportico]

One thing I've been thinking about the Reading & Slough test this year is, that you (the parent) has the option to tick either Reading or Slough or both schools on your entrance forms (assuming you are in catchment for both). This would mean if you tick both towns, then you are being standardised against both cohorts (for the respective schools in those towns). I suspect this will later on have some bearing on the final qualification scores for both towns. For example, if Reading Boys and Kendrick girls score highly and have ticked both towns on their forms, then this will raise the bar for Slough cohort, likewise if Slough candidates tick Reading and score highly then the cohort changes again......sorry if I'm not making sense but I figure I'm trying to say it's probably worth making the right choice on the form in everyone's interest!

I don't think it'll make a difference in the long run though?

Say some brilliant child from somewhere along the M4 does both, and wants to be considered for all the schools. Yes, the spread of standardised scores might be slightly affected, but the child can only go to one school, and hence the score needed to get into the other one will drop down to the next person accordingly. I don't think it's different to a child taking both lots of tests at the moment. I think? It can be hard to have an intuitive feel for standardisation.

[sonasona]

In Birmingham you get a standardised score for each paper and these are added together to give the total score e.g. Paper 1 107, paper 2 124, total 231. Assume all are done the same but who knows. Good luck.

Thanks for this, it's just that I had read on one of the Slough school's websites "The tests themselves will continue to identify the top 30% of the cohort as eligible for consideration for entry to grammar school; the eligibility mark will remain unchanged at 111." therefore I assumed that the Berkshire schools will standardise using the same method as before, anyway, we'll know more after Kendrick Open evening tonight (I hope!).

Say some brilliant child from somewhere along the M4 does both, and wants to be considered for all the schools. Yes, the spread of standardised scores might be slightly affected, but the child can only go to one school, and hence the score needed to get into the other one will drop down to the next person accordingly. I don't think it's different to a child taking both lots of tests at the moment. I think? It can be hard to have an intuitive feel for standardisation

Your probably right........sometimes I think too deep!

[JamesDean]

In Birmingham you get a standardised score for each paper and these are added together to give the total score e.g. Paper 1 107, paper 2 124, total 231. Assume all are done the same but who knows. Good luck.

Not in Warks! This year VR, NVR and Maths each had a standardised score. The final mark was then given by adding together 50% VR and 25% each Maths and NVR scores! And this had changed from the previous year where each subject had been given an equal 33% weighting ...

Nothing can be taken for granted with CEM

JD

[Tinkers]

I suspect Kendrick will continue to take the two scores and average them.

[southbucks3]

Bucks is 50/30/20.

As it is Berkshires near neighbour I bet they go for something very similar for the new consortium, or at the very least for the slough consortium.

[sonasona]

Confirmed it's the mean of the Standardised scores of both papers.

They can't give qualifying score yet, but will give some indication of likely hood of gaining a place when they post the results......but no guarantees as expected.

No mention of weightings for each topic though.