SW/ Watford exams

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aai72
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:22 pm

SW/ Watford exams

Post by aai72 »

Hi
my dd appeared for SW consortium test and found Maths very very eeaaaasssyyy..( in her words) and got 20 minutes to recheck the answers, whereas she said that VR (synonyms) were very difficult.
and got the same remarks from other friends at school.
now just wondering why the maths paper was so easy? can anyboy help to throw some light?
examsaretough
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2015 5:19 pm

Re: SW/ Watford exams

Post by examsaretough »

i got the same reaction from my DD and her cousin. Who knows :) but i'm glad as she came out of it feeling very confident.
mof3
Posts: 23
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 2:40 pm

Re: SW/ Watford exams

Post by mof3 »

In my experience (my son sat it last year and I spoke to parents from previous years) it is always the same with the SW Consortium exam. Last year my son came out saying it was the easiest Maths paper he had ever done (and he did a looooooot Lol) and the VR was harder "but not too bad'. He scored in the low 250s.
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: SW/ Watford exams

Post by Daogroupie »

It is now CEM VR so you cannot compare with last year. The Maths is easy so students rush and make lots of silly mistakes because they are over confident.

It is a classical Hare and Tortoise story, those who are wary and slow down win the prize.

But it is hard for those who have been preparing with Habs Maths papers because they are duped into rushing. DG
noonynunu
Posts: 318
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2013 1:31 pm

Re: SW/ Watford exams

Post by noonynunu »

mof3 wrote:In my experience (my son sat it last year and I spoke to parents from previous years) it is always the same with the SW Consortium exam. Last year my son came out saying it was the easiest Maths paper he had ever done (and he did a looooooot Lol) and the VR was harder "but not too bad'. He scored in the low 250s.
Did your son get into WGBS in the end then?

My concern about the maths paper is that, if it was really that easy (my DS said it was in line with what he had experienced in mocs so not hard but not easy either), there will be a fair number of children clustered with the higher marks. This will place emphasis on getting a high mark on the VR in order to avoid the CI lists.
nyr
Posts: 1166
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:39 am

Re: SW/ Watford exams

Post by nyr »

Agreeing with noonynunu, my guess is that the maths is intentionally very easy so all reasonable able children score near the maximum mark and this prevents able mathematicians from standing out from the crowd. It's only the VR score that distinguishes and leads to a simple but effective mechanism for selecting a particular type of candidate. Or am I being a bit cynical here?

nyr
jodeep
Posts: 64
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2014 12:57 pm

Re: SW/ Watford exams

Post by jodeep »

2 years back, my son came out of the SW eleven plus exam and told me that he finished maths in 20 mins and I was really concerned. But he he got a good mark in Maths and >270 overall when results came. So I think an easy SW Herts Maths paper is not a new phenomenon.
noonynunu
Posts: 318
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2013 1:31 pm

Re: SW/ Watford exams

Post by noonynunu »

jodeep wrote:2 years back, my son came out of the SW eleven plus exam and told me that he finished maths in 20 mins and I was really concerned. But he he got a good mark in Maths and >270 overall when results came. So I think an easy SW Herts Maths paper is not a new phenomenon.
jodeep, I'd have been concerned if you DS didn't find it easy given that he was hoping to get into QE. My DS sat a moc with a lot of QE hopefuls, he did very well in it too. The level was significantly higher than that expected by SW Herts, but then again the SW Herts schools are not super selective schools.
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: SW/ Watford exams

Post by Daogroupie »

Nyr, very interesting. If this is the case this year they are going to get a lot of students with a very wide vocabulary. DG
mof3
Posts: 23
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 2:40 pm

Re: SW/ Watford exams

Post by mof3 »

I would agree that the Maths paper prevents the very able Maths students from standing out, although whether this is deliberate or not, I couldn't say. I also believe that it comes down to a child's strength in vocabulary, whether sitting the old-style verbal reasoning test or the newer CEM verbal, as to whether they score in the 255-282 region.
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