Practice paper scores
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Practice paper scores
We are aiming for an out of catchment place at Alty boys without the assistance of a tutor as we cannot afford one.
What sort of raw score should we be aiming for on the practice assessment papers to stand a chance?
I'm aware that the standardisation is not set against the national average scoring so I'm assuming that we need to be getting very high scores to stand a chance as the Alty entrants are going to skew the standardisation massively.
Of those whose child has achieved an out of catchment score, what percentage were they achieving on practice tests?
What sort of raw score should we be aiming for on the practice assessment papers to stand a chance?
I'm aware that the standardisation is not set against the national average scoring so I'm assuming that we need to be getting very high scores to stand a chance as the Alty entrants are going to skew the standardisation massively.
Of those whose child has achieved an out of catchment score, what percentage were they achieving on practice tests?
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Altymumof2
- Posts: 77
- Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 9:54 pm
Re: Practice paper scores
Hi Vicster- I think you need to be looking at about 85% to be comfortable- but DON'T panic if DS isn't achieving those scores at the mo- a lot happens over the holidays. My DS was getting late 60's early 70's at this stage and it was by doing a GL about 4 x per week, suddenly by the end of August the marks shot up.
Best of luck.
Best of luck.
Re: Practice paper scores
Thank you for the reassurance. I was fearing that we had left it a little late as I hear people talking about needing 95% and above on each paper to stand any chance of getting an OOC place. I think we can get to 85%+ plus over the summer.
We did one paper of each subject over Easter and my son achieved around 70% on average. We did English, maths and VR and will now have to look at NVR instead (probably better for my son). I think my son has lacked motivation so far but he was very impressed on open evening so now has a good reason to put in some effort.
We did one paper of each subject over Easter and my son achieved around 70% on average. We did English, maths and VR and will now have to look at NVR instead (probably better for my son). I think my son has lacked motivation so far but he was very impressed on open evening so now has a good reason to put in some effort.
Re: Practice paper scores
Hello Vicster,
Last year someone in the forum said 85% or more to me as well.but my DS was not scoring that high consistently. so pls do not worry about the score at this stage. I would suggest you re visit papers again as revision. We had our own mock exams at home, my usual concern was timing. If ds gets 80% within time- i feel thats a accomplishment. My main area of focus would be attempting all question within time. And this is what i based the practice papers on. The drilling of syllabus, for eg formulas, timetables, vr/nvr techniques,were all done before start of practice papers and mock exams. I feel it is unfair for DS to expect him to do the paper on time and gain good marks, before all core topics are covered.
I hope this helps.
Last year someone in the forum said 85% or more to me as well.but my DS was not scoring that high consistently. so pls do not worry about the score at this stage. I would suggest you re visit papers again as revision. We had our own mock exams at home, my usual concern was timing. If ds gets 80% within time- i feel thats a accomplishment. My main area of focus would be attempting all question within time. And this is what i based the practice papers on. The drilling of syllabus, for eg formulas, timetables, vr/nvr techniques,were all done before start of practice papers and mock exams. I feel it is unfair for DS to expect him to do the paper on time and gain good marks, before all core topics are covered.
I hope this helps.
Re: Practice paper scores
Thanks oshosh.
My sons timing was okay on the maths but he was a little slower than required on the VR. We haven't timed the NVR as we were not expecting it to be required until we went to open evening.
I had heard people talking about 80-85% being the sort of scores required to be capable of an OOC pass but then I read some threads on here where people were quoting that it was more like 95%+ in all subject areas
I'm not sure we can get anywhere close to 95% in all areas but I think 85% is doable.
We are going to work on timing over the next few weeks. It's a bit daunting knowing that a lot of children taking the exam will have had a couple of years of tutoring and will have spent a lot of time doing mocks and timed assessments and fine tuning their exam skills.
My sons timing was okay on the maths but he was a little slower than required on the VR. We haven't timed the NVR as we were not expecting it to be required until we went to open evening.
I had heard people talking about 80-85% being the sort of scores required to be capable of an OOC pass but then I read some threads on here where people were quoting that it was more like 95%+ in all subject areas
I'm not sure we can get anywhere close to 95% in all areas but I think 85% is doable.
We are going to work on timing over the next few weeks. It's a bit daunting knowing that a lot of children taking the exam will have had a couple of years of tutoring and will have spent a lot of time doing mocks and timed assessments and fine tuning their exam skills.
Re: Practice paper scores
I think it's about 80- 85% and anyone that says it's 95% is either showing off or scaremongering!! 
Re: Practice paper scores
Hello vicster,
Do not worry. For rough idea my son's score were all on average between 70%- 80% in all of the papers. There were a few times when he did hit 90% and there was once i remember he achieved only 60%- NVR paper 1.....a killer......
So just work on core skills- nvr, i think must be practiced everyday for 10-15 min and kept on top. Timing is very important- 30seconds per question on average. Saying that my DS still had to guess the last few nvr questions in the real exam. VR - technique is very important- if the approach to the question is wrong, then it is going to take longer to complete a question. Maths-is what i posted the last time.
Pls stay calm- everybody has different approaches to the exam. Good luck.
Do not worry. For rough idea my son's score were all on average between 70%- 80% in all of the papers. There were a few times when he did hit 90% and there was once i remember he achieved only 60%- NVR paper 1.....a killer......
So just work on core skills- nvr, i think must be practiced everyday for 10-15 min and kept on top. Timing is very important- 30seconds per question on average. Saying that my DS still had to guess the last few nvr questions in the real exam. VR - technique is very important- if the approach to the question is wrong, then it is going to take longer to complete a question. Maths-is what i posted the last time.
Pls stay calm- everybody has different approaches to the exam. Good luck.
Re: Practice paper scores
I know this is an old post but it is reassuring to know that if DC (OOC) were getting 85% overall on GL practice papers and then went on to pass.
If I remember correctly that was the score that DS was getting near the exam 5 years ago and he passed quite comfortably and was allocated a place at AGSB.
I was initially worried when I began to tutor DS that the pass mark might have been inflated with the sheer number of children sitting the exam year on year but judging by this post it does not seem to be the case.
At present DS is getting an overall percentage of low - mid 70s. He has done two GL assessment papers this half term (Verbal. NV and Maths) paper pack 1 was a killer. How is everyone else getting on? Still a long way to go to get to the 85% mark but we have got a couple of months to go
If I remember correctly that was the score that DS was getting near the exam 5 years ago and he passed quite comfortably and was allocated a place at AGSB.
I was initially worried when I began to tutor DS that the pass mark might have been inflated with the sheer number of children sitting the exam year on year but judging by this post it does not seem to be the case.
At present DS is getting an overall percentage of low - mid 70s. He has done two GL assessment papers this half term (Verbal. NV and Maths) paper pack 1 was a killer. How is everyone else getting on? Still a long way to go to get to the 85% mark but we have got a couple of months to go
Re: Practice paper scores
We have just started Gl papers and also around 70% because he seems to run out of time on Maths. Looked at the Cem and I would struggle to.do them myself! The pass Mark has got to be lower for those exams- That's based on gut feeling rather than facts....
I think we will step it up in the holidays. Lucky to do an hour a day in term time.
Hoping he can catch up later
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I think we will step it up in the holidays. Lucky to do an hour a day in term time.
Hoping he can catch up later
.Re: Practice paper scores
95+ is only necessary for super-selectives like Q.E(and that's just to get through the first stageVicster wrote:I was fearing that we had left it a little late as I hear people talking about needing 95% and above on each paper to stand any chance of getting an OOC place.
)no Grammar in Trafford is super-selective, so all the more remarkable that AGGS does so well!
for all State Maintained Schools(2014)
1 (1) Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet Barnet
2 (2) The Henrietta Barnett School London
3 (3) The Tiffin Girls' School Kingston upon Thames
4 (4) Pate's Grammar School Cheltenham
5 (6) St Olave's Grammar School, Orpington
6 (27) Tonbridge Grammar School Tonbridge
7 (9=) Colchester Royal Grammar School Colchester
8 (7) Altrincham Grammar School for Girls Altrincham
9 (11) Reading School Reading
10 (5) Wilson's School Wallington
top ten State schools as per The Times Parent Power (the only leagues tables that have any meaning now that ,the FT no longer indulges in such nonsense!)
