AQE Exam Results

Belfast_Mum_2

I looked at schools registered on AQE website, then at how many places each offered. This totalled to over 4600. The Belfast Telegraph published the 2009 intake for all schools so it was easy to work out places. I only have a photocopy of this - don't know if it's available online.

minto5

I have spent the last few days pulling my hair out - literally. My son got a score of 103, and while we reassured him that his mark was brill, I don't know what to think as he has his heart set on BRA and I dont know if this mark will get him a place..
Going into school with him this morning made it no clearer - the head was asking me what his score meant !!!
He was getting really fantastic marks in the practice papers, so we had encouraged him in relation to going to BRA. now I feel like a bit of a failure as a parent. His school took nothing to do with the new tests and let all the kids down. There were only 12 kids who sat AQE, and of these 103 is the highest score - which is frightening considering how bright his class is.
I have read the posts and feel that I have learnt more today than I have from all the so called 'professionals'. Many thanks to everyone x

susiesus

minto5 wrote: »

I have spent the last few days pulling my hair out - literally. My son got a score of 103, and while we reassured him that his mark was brill, I don't know what to think as he has his heart set on BRA and I dont know if this mark will get him a place..
Going into school with him this morning made it no clearer - the head was asking me what his score meant !!!
He was getting really fantastic marks in the practice papers, so we had encouraged him in relation to going to BRA. now I feel like a bit of a failure as a parent. His school took nothing to do with the new tests and let all the kids down. There were only 12 kids who sat AQE, and of these 103 is the highest score - which is frightening considering how bright his class is.
I have read the posts and feel that I have learnt more today than I have from all the so called 'professionals'. Many thanks to everyone x

Can I just second that thanks, my husband and I have been on and off the forum all day and have learnt more in the past 2 days than the past year!
Someone should cut and paste all these and post them to Ms 'Ruin' our so called Minister for Ed who was fortunate enough to secure a grammar ed for her own children!

mrsdrb

our primary school did prep the kids for the aqe tests, doing about 2 tests a week with them since September, latter part of p6 was also taken up with test prep, (we were offered help for the GL test too, our child was the only one in the school doing both, we declined the offer and did our own prep at home)

our principal this morning had already been in contact with the main grammars in the area, so had a fair idea of what each intake would be in terms of scores ...his view overall was that band 1 and 2 of aqe would get a grammar place and some from band 3.

the aqe result format has been a bit of a nightmare, our child got 106, we thought this was equivalent to a b1 so figured she would not get into one of local grammars (which previously has taken in A's and handful of b1's) but that she would have a good chance getting into the other, we had to explain this to our daughter on Saturday, make a decision about what to do and then prioritise the schools based on her chances of getting in and which ones she favoured, thankfully this was quite straightforward but I did feel a lot of pressure.... fastforward to this morning ...as I noted earlier we arrived in to see the school principal for him to tell us 106 was equivalent to a grade A ........... brill news but why oh why could we not have been provided with clearer guidance earlier, the principal was able to tell us that last week he had enough info to know that band 1 and 2 were A grades but that he had no way of communicating that to parents as it wasn't 'official'...

JosieJoBelfast

ni-mum Here is the breakdown as far as I can work out for BELB and SEELB - others with the Transfer booklets for the other Boards may be able to do the same.

BELB
From this year's BELB transfer booklet- there are a total of 2345 grammar places available in the BELB area (this is across 16 schools). 910 through the GL Assessment and 1305 through the AQE tests and then 130 places through both tests (Victoria College).

Of those in the AQE bracket: 705 places in a mixed school, 310 in a girls school and 290 in a boys school. Then a further 130 for girls in Victoria and they accept both test results.

SEELB
From this year's SEELB transfer booklet- there are a total of 1546 grammar places available in the SEELB area (this is across 10 schools and 35% of intake in Lagan that has a Grammar stream ). 466 through the GL Assessment and 1080 through the AQE tests.

Of those in the AQE bracket: 798 places in a mixed school, 157 in a girls school and 125 in a boys school.

Not sure if this is helpful or not........

Ex-Spendaholic

I have nothing useful to say but just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who is posting on this thread. :T :T At the moment it is my only sanity and I hope we can all keep posting on here for the remainder of this horrific process.

rolo1_2

Campbell College Belfast are having a Post-Results open Evening on the 10th Feb. The College offers Bursaries to those boys whose score places them in the top two quintiles of the AQE test - As per Tonights Belfast Telegraph, page 45.

Ex-Spendaholic

Thanks Rolo. Despite reading the Tele I missed that. Campbell was our 2nd choice but we thought we would be working on a quintile 1 or 2 and would get the reduced fees. Unfortunately though my son is 2 marks off the quintile 2.

For anyone interested the fees are £2098. You get £1000 discount in year 8 and year 9 if you have a quintile 1 and £500 discount if you are quintile 2. Anyone else pays the £2098 and if you happen to play an instrument and want tuition then you can say goodbye to £300 per year for that. :eek:

Belf_mum_of_3

neveranymoney wrote: »

My daugher got 101 and like many here, we were quite shocked - had expected higher due to her practice paper scores. ......

Neveranymoney we have a daughter this year who got 111 and her average test scores were about 85%.

Do you think next year daughter 2 has any hope at all given she has been getting 50 to 60% in tests?

Daughter 1 wants Victoria, but I thought Hunterhouse might give more chance to daughter 2. Anyone any thoughts on that?

ni-mum

Belf_mum_of_3 wrote: »

Neveranymoney we have a daughter this year who got 111 and her average test scores were about 85%.

Do you think next year daughter 2 has any hope at all given she has been getting 50 to 60% in tests?

Daughter 1 wants Victoria, but I thought Hunterhouse might give more chance to daughter 2. Anyone any thoughts on that?

Victoria's first band is the top two quintiles so I'd be surprised if your daughter didn't get in with 111. Have you got your percentile ranking from them?