Centralised testing
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Guest
Centralised testing
I just wanted to wish all children taking tests this week the very best of luck. My son is very nervous and he doesn't have the familiarity of doing the test at his own school. It is pretty scary being taken to a large hall where you don't know anybody and don't really know what to expect. It is also supposed to be his holiday - not much of a rest !!
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JB
My sympathies - my daughter was also in Aylesbury bright & early this morning!
As an out of county, untutored child we're not expecting too much, but after taking the 3 practise papers over the last 3 days she still wanted to have a go. Very varied results on the pracitse papers:
Friday - only had time to answer 52 questions & got 44 correct.
Saturday - answered 64 questions & got 54 correct.
Yesterday - answered all the questions & got 62 correct.
Today - came out smiling, saying that it was easy, she's finished in time & 'only had to guess 5'!
So God only knows what to expect...worst result would be to pass but not be offered a place because we live 10 miles from Royal Latin, over the Northants border.
PS - can anyone confirm that in Bucks the test is scored by best paper out of the 2, rather than total or average?
Thanks, JB
As an out of county, untutored child we're not expecting too much, but after taking the 3 practise papers over the last 3 days she still wanted to have a go. Very varied results on the pracitse papers:
Friday - only had time to answer 52 questions & got 44 correct.
Saturday - answered 64 questions & got 54 correct.
Yesterday - answered all the questions & got 62 correct.
Today - came out smiling, saying that it was easy, she's finished in time & 'only had to guess 5'!
So God only knows what to expect...worst result would be to pass but not be offered a place because we live 10 miles from Royal Latin, over the Northants border.
PS - can anyone confirm that in Bucks the test is scored by best paper out of the 2, rather than total or average?
Thanks, JB
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Guest
If your daughter passes she still might get a place. RLS offered up to 10.485 miles last year (see http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/bcc/get//asse ... ofiles.pdf)
I think it all depends on the number of places available, since - after other criteria, e.g. siblings, are taken into account - unfilled places are offered to successful out-of-area candidates in order of distance from the school regardless of VR score. Presumably, this distance should change each year depending on how many successful out-of-area candidates there are and how far away from the school they live.
Best of luck to your daughter and please let us know how she gets on - we also live in Northants and have a daughter at RLS!
I think it all depends on the number of places available, since - after other criteria, e.g. siblings, are taken into account - unfilled places are offered to successful out-of-area candidates in order of distance from the school regardless of VR score. Presumably, this distance should change each year depending on how many successful out-of-area candidates there are and how far away from the school they live.
Best of luck to your daughter and please let us know how she gets on - we also live in Northants and have a daughter at RLS!
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Patricia
Thought you might be interesting in a course I went to several years ago before the introduction of the new test set up for Bucks (best of 2 with 3 practices replacing previous average of 2 of 3 tests with 2 practices). The course was given by the team responsible for bringing in the new 11+ exam system, together with the new cross-county equal preference allocation system for schools. The team was headed by a management consultant, and the team members were LEA admissions personnel. Course attendees were mostly primary school governors (like myself) and some head teachers.
To see whether best of 2 tests gave a different result from average of best 2 of 3 tests, the team had fed all the data from a previous year's results (i.e. taking tests 2 and 3 from 2003 -I thnk- )to see which children would qualify (reach 121) on the new test system. They found that for all entrants to the Bucks tests for that (2003?) year there was a difference for 5 children only. For each of the 5 they would have qualified under the new system (attain 121 in 1 test qualifies) whereas they had not qualified under the old system (average of best 2 tests had to be greater than 121). Each of those 5 children had appealed and each had been accepted into grammar schools on appeal.
So the team's conclusion was that the change made little difference to the result and that in the very few cases that it did, it favoured the children.
..............
Thought you might be interesting in a course I went to several years ago before the introduction of the new test set up for Bucks (best of 2 with 3 practices replacing previous average of 2 of 3 tests with 2 practices). The course was given by the team responsible for bringing in the new 11+ exam system, together with the new cross-county equal preference allocation system for schools. The team was headed by a management consultant, and the team members were LEA admissions personnel. Course attendees were mostly primary school governors (like myself) and some head teachers.
To see whether best of 2 tests gave a different result from average of best 2 of 3 tests, the team had fed all the data from a previous year's results (i.e. taking tests 2 and 3 from 2003 -I thnk- )to see which children would qualify (reach 121) on the new test system. They found that for all entrants to the Bucks tests for that (2003?) year there was a difference for 5 children only. For each of the 5 they would have qualified under the new system (attain 121 in 1 test qualifies) whereas they had not qualified under the old system (average of best 2 tests had to be greater than 121). Each of those 5 children had appealed and each had been accepted into grammar schools on appeal.
So the team's conclusion was that the change made little difference to the result and that in the very few cases that it did, it favoured the children.
..............
