Standardisation
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Belinda, standardisation has me foxed too. I do try to understand, and accept that there has to be a cut-off somewhere in the year, but part of me still thinks that it just not fair on the youngest ones due to up to a year's less maturity.
As I understand it, on the whole, Sept kids will be able to answer more questions than Aug born children. There will always be exceptions to this but, on average, this is what tends to happen. So for those not born in Sept, a percentage is added to the score. The percentage increases the further towards Aug you get. As for how many extra points you get is a complete mystery!
I also enquired with my local council a few years back and was told that, regardless of when a child is born within a month, all that month's children will be compared to each other. Eg, all May kids will be compared with all other May kids and no allowances will be made for those born on 31st against those born on 1st. So it's better to be born at the beginning of the month!
As I understand it, on the whole, Sept kids will be able to answer more questions than Aug born children. There will always be exceptions to this but, on average, this is what tends to happen. So for those not born in Sept, a percentage is added to the score. The percentage increases the further towards Aug you get. As for how many extra points you get is a complete mystery!
I also enquired with my local council a few years back and was told that, regardless of when a child is born within a month, all that month's children will be compared to each other. Eg, all May kids will be compared with all other May kids and no allowances will be made for those born on 31st against those born on 1st. So it's better to be born at the beginning of the month!
Your assessment is correct, but the question is how the additional marks are allocated. Is this by subject or by overall test score. having discussed this with an ex-grammer school teacher, i beleive its by subjcet with the weakest subject for a 10 yr old as opposed to an 11 year old being English!
I think it could be up to 2 marks per subject which could equate to 6-8 marks overall which makes a huge difference!
I think it could be up to 2 marks per subject which could equate to 6-8 marks overall which makes a huge difference!
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IMHO all this standardisation is actually a bit of a red herring. I would speculate that preparation could have a substantially more significant effect than age.Tracy wrote:So it's better to be born at the beginning of the month!
Regards
SVE
PS
You are correct. Being born on 1st of month makes you older... and hence max advantage
Animis opibusque parati
Guest55 is correct it's the age on the day of the test, that way if they have a reserve test date several weeks later they can still directly combine the results.
For example for the B/Ham KE tests these are normally held on the 1st Saturday in Nov each year. So for the 2004 exams the maximum age of child on that date was 11.18 years (born on the 1st Sept) and the youngest child was 10.22 years (born on the 31st August)
The children are therefore grouped into monthly pots downwards from the date of the eldest. (1st Sept to 30th Sept etc)
The standardisation process varies from exam to exam and from year to year. In B/Ham KE tests for a pass your child may need to average about 118 per section which is equivalent to about the 87th percentile. (Maths, VR and NVR sections in 2 papers are standardised separately)
As an example of actual Age Standardisation, in the KE VR Tests in 2004 , to achieve a Standardised Score of 118 a child aged 11.18 years on the exam day would have to achieve score 71/100, whereas a child who was only 10.22 years would only have to score 65/100. A difference of 6 marks in the raw score between the oldest and youngest possible candidate.
You need to remember that the Age Standardisation is a mathematical adjustment process to produce a smooth distribution that has certain statistical characteristics. This is based on pretty solid research on the effects of Age undertaken over many years.
Hope this helps
For example for the B/Ham KE tests these are normally held on the 1st Saturday in Nov each year. So for the 2004 exams the maximum age of child on that date was 11.18 years (born on the 1st Sept) and the youngest child was 10.22 years (born on the 31st August)
The children are therefore grouped into monthly pots downwards from the date of the eldest. (1st Sept to 30th Sept etc)
The standardisation process varies from exam to exam and from year to year. In B/Ham KE tests for a pass your child may need to average about 118 per section which is equivalent to about the 87th percentile. (Maths, VR and NVR sections in 2 papers are standardised separately)
As an example of actual Age Standardisation, in the KE VR Tests in 2004 , to achieve a Standardised Score of 118 a child aged 11.18 years on the exam day would have to achieve score 71/100, whereas a child who was only 10.22 years would only have to score 65/100. A difference of 6 marks in the raw score between the oldest and youngest possible candidate.
You need to remember that the Age Standardisation is a mathematical adjustment process to produce a smooth distribution that has certain statistical characteristics. This is based on pretty solid research on the effects of Age undertaken over many years.
Hope this helps
Hi Shuff
It probably depends how you LEA sets the school year and exam eligibility. In B/Ham this goes from the 1st Sept to the 31st August so they allocate pupils into monthly 'buckets' from the 1st Sept.
However I believe some LEAs have a different definition - I seem to recall the 23rd Aug being used in some cases, in which case the monthly allocation might not be from the 1st of the month.
In practice it's not going to make any significant different - there may only a change of a single mark every 2 or 3 months.
It probably depends how you LEA sets the school year and exam eligibility. In B/Ham this goes from the 1st Sept to the 31st August so they allocate pupils into monthly 'buckets' from the 1st Sept.
However I believe some LEAs have a different definition - I seem to recall the 23rd Aug being used in some cases, in which case the monthly allocation might not be from the 1st of the month.
In practice it's not going to make any significant different - there may only a change of a single mark every 2 or 3 months.