Percentages required?

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Manana
Posts: 710
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:22 pm

Percentages required?

Post by Manana »

Does anyone want to pontificate with me about what they think the approx percentage pass mark will be for in Southend catchment (or even out of catchment)?

I'd always thought it was about 55%? Is there any reason why that might change? If there are only 2 papers instead of three, does that mean that the marks will be closer together-more bunched in the middle? Will that push the pass mark up?

Even if you don't know the answer-join in and give me something to think about :lol:
Nikkibeak
Posts: 194
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:50 pm

Re: Percentages required?

Post by Nikkibeak »

I keep wondering if the marks will change due to only 2 papers. I'm thinking the cores will be more bunched together or that each 1 mark will be worth way more in the standardised score. If they still have the standardised score as a 303 pass for Southend then each 1 mark available on the exam must be worth about 6 or 7 standardised points. Which is a worry for those of us with kids that could have dropped a few marks through silly mistakes :shock:
MacPac
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2012 3:05 pm

Re: Percentages required?

Post by MacPac »

Each paper is going to be worth 150% so the pass mark will still be 303. I took DS1's English and maths scores from last year and did the standardisation process with each paper worth 150% and got pretty much the same score as his original 3 paper score. Maths has never been my strong point though and I've had a difficult day so I'm not sure I make sense :lol:
Nikkibeak
Posts: 194
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:50 pm

Re: Percentages required?

Post by Nikkibeak »

MacPac wrote:Each paper is going to be worth 150% so the pass mark will still be 303. I took DS1's English and maths scores from last year and did the standardisation process with each paper worth 150% and got pretty much the same score as his original 3 paper score. Maths has never been my strong point though and I've had a difficult day so I'm not sure I make sense :lol:
That makes sense. It means that each 1 mark is really worth 1.5 and each lost mark was worth 1.5 too :shock:
pinkrabbit38
Posts: 568
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 3:20 pm

Re: Percentages required?

Post by pinkrabbit38 »

MacPac wrote:Each paper is going to be worth 150% so the pass mark will still be 303. I took DS1's English and maths scores from last year and did the standardisation process with each paper worth 150% and got pretty much the same score as his original 3 paper score. Maths has never been my strong point though and I've had a difficult day so I'm not sure I make sense :lol:

Not sure I understand....why 150%?
ToadMum
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Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:41 pm
Location: Essex

Re: Percentages required?

Post by ToadMum »

StephiB wrote:
MacPac wrote:Each paper is going to be worth 150% so the pass mark will still be 303. I took DS1's English and maths scores from last year and did the standardisation process with each paper worth 150% and got pretty much the same score as his original 3 paper score. Maths has never been my strong point though and I've had a difficult day so I'm not sure I make sense :lol:

Not sure I understand....why 150%?
Because otherwise you would have two lots of scores standardised around a mean standardised score of 100 and the scores would range from whatever the 'bottom line' is to around 280, so the 'pass' would be c.202. If you already know that the 'pass' will still be 303 (is that definite?), then the scores will have to be scaled up somehow, by 150% each if the papers are to be given equal weighting.
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Thylacine11
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 10:05 am

Re: Percentages required?

Post by Thylacine11 »

Too add to the confusion remember That VR was worth double the other two papers so was actually half of the total percentage achieved.
Also I have noticed ( so open to debate ) that children who got the standardised scores that got them the schools they wanted most often achieved scores of 75% or more on the VR whilst scoring lower even down to 50% on one or other of the maths or English. This would suggest to me that the VR was an easier exam to score higher on. This then would suggest to me that VRs removal will mean that overall percentages needed to get into schools this year may well be lower. I have no idea if this means that standardised scores will be lower or if standardisation returns scores to the status quo!
To confuse further there are 30 more marks combined available this year on the maths and English papers than last year!
There was a poster in previous years ( Aang I think ) who was a statistical genius. If you are out there Aang please help us out :)
Manana
Posts: 710
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:22 pm

Re: Percentages required?

Post by Manana »

Thylacine11 wrote:Too add to the confusion remember That VR was worth double the other two papers so was actually half of the total percentage achieved.
Also I have noticed ( so open to debate ) that children who got the standardised scores that got them the schools they wanted most often achieved scores of 75% or more on the VR whilst scoring lower even down to 50% on one or other of the maths or English. This would suggest to me that the VR was an easier exam to score higher on. This then would suggest to me that VRs removal will mean that overall percentages needed to get into schools this year may well be lower. I have no idea if this means that standardised scores will be lower or if standardisation returns scores to the status quo!
To confuse further there are 30 more marks combined available this year on the maths and English papers than last year!
There was a poster in previous years ( Aang I think ) who was a statistical genius. If you are out there Aang please help us out :)
I agree with your first point. DS got 67/80 in VR, 24/50 in English and 34/40 in Maths-so his VR % was far higher than other two.

I don't understand your second point though (my fault-not yours!). Why would removing VR make the overall % needed lower? Wouldn't it push them up?

Can you explain it clearly for me in words of one syllable!?
Thylacine11
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 10:05 am

Re: Percentages required?

Post by Thylacine11 »

Ok here's my thinking. Your DS got 48% on the English , 85% on the maths and his VR % was 84% his total % would be 48 + 85 + 84 +84 ( VR counts double ) his average would be 75.25%

If he had sat this year his average would be 48 + 85 divided by 2 would be 66.5%

He's still the same child its just the Vr pulls up his %

If we assume ( and this is the big assumption ) that this applies fairly much to most children then the average % of all children will drop with VR out of the equation and therefore the % needed to "pass" will drop.

The standardised points I have not a clue about.

This is my thinking and I could of course be way of base.
Manana
Posts: 710
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:22 pm

Re: Percentages required?

Post by Manana »

That does make sense. I liked the VR as it pulled his score up, but suppose nobody has that now-it's just down to the maths and English. Unfortunately, Maths is my DD's strong point and the head of one of the grammars has said that there were some high scoring maths papers... :roll: Maybe there weren't many though!!

I found this from two years ago when looking at the scores from my DS.

Your child’s raw scores in the three tests are as follows:
English Score 23/50
Mathematics Score 23/40
Verbal Reasoning Score 45/80
These three results are adjusted to take account of any variations in the difficulty of different papers each year and combined to produce your child's overall, standardised, weighted score of: 307.772


This suggests that a score of just over 50% (54%?) was enough to get a Southend pass? Maybe even lower to get a SS of 303?

I wonder if a score of say 32/60 in both papers would be enough to get 303?

That just can't be right though. Surely most people who sat it would get 50% or above?
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