Support thread for parents of pupils sitting AQE exam in November

ni-mum

Willyk wrote: »

I received a letter from AQE which explains how the marking system works. I assume all parents of children sitting the test this year will get one.

I'd also be interested to hear how the marking system worked.

Ex-Spendaholic

Ni Mum, I'll post that info later this evening (when I've got the kids from under my feet). Very interesting reading I must say.

BOBS

ni-mum wrote: »

Could you tell us what scores got into

Grosvenor
Methody
Wellington
Victoria
Hunter House

Thanks

Grosvenor - highest 172 lowest 92,
Methody 126 100
Wellington 126 93
Victoria - not listed - is it known by a different name ??
Hunter House 112 91

Still havent full article read - will report back if anything else relevant ..

Willyk

Results now online:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education/post-primary-selection/revealed-northern-irelands-grammar-school-entrance-test-lottery-14971040.html

Can't see Grosvenor there though ! Are they listed in the actual paper ?

From the article:

The Belfast Telegraph has learned that a breakdown of schools' grade intake will not be provided in this year’s transfer booklets — produced annually by the education boards to guide parents through the transfer process.
This means that the information supplied by the Belfast Telegraph today is the only opportunity for parents to see the complete picture of the grade intake of the schools which use academic selection.

and

This paper asked for the information from schools in June. However, many did not respond until this was followed up by an official Freedom of Information (FoI) request.

Ex-Spendaholic

Thanks for the link WillyK. Yes Grosvenor definitely in paper so not sure what has gone wrong:

Highest 127
Lowest 92 - I happen to know that there were 2 who got in with 92 (Special Circumstances)


52 Q1 43 Q2 46 Q3 14 Q4


The thing that is amazing me about all of this is the number of Q4s in a lot of the schools. My son was at the very top of Q3 and I really worried he wouldn't get a place but it looks like that worry was for nothing.


Another thing which totally amazes me is Sullivan Upper. We didn't put it on the form as I believed if he didn't have enough for Grosvenor, Wellington et al that there was no way he was getting in there.

163 applications for 150 places

Highest Score 124
Lowest 79
First 126 strict rank order then remaining 24 from a pool

73 Q1 45 Q2 25 Q3 7 Q4 1 Q5


I truly believed that nearly all their intake would be Q1.

Willyk

Had not really looked that closely at the scoring system sewction of the letter, but have now and the letter does not really say much. Best 2 scores out of the 3 tests used if all 3 tests sat by pupil.

Scores will be adjusted to take account of age of candidate and the average score for the candidates who sit the CEA will be 100. Scores above this will indicate that a candidate has performed at a higher level than the average candidate for the CEA. A score lower than 100 will indicate that a candidate has performed lower than the average candidate for the CEA. Scores will be given to the nearest whole number.

........bit of more waffle......

accordingly a score lower than 100 should not necessarily be interpreted as indicating that a candidate is unsuited to a grammar school education.

Ex-Spendaholic

Thanks Willyk, we did get something like that last year.

What I'm still looking for is information on how they do age adjustments etc. I have never believed that my child got any age adjustment. Suppose I should really get over it all as he did get first choice school - Grosvenor and would have got into any of the others on our list too.

Freefromdebt_2

I found the article in the Tele very helpful. I sat on Friday night and worked out roughly what we need to be scoring in the papers at the moment. To get the equivalent of an A in the GL papers my daughter needs to be getting in the low 40s for Maths and low 60s for English - not much to ask is it ?
I find myself asking now - why was a system that wasnt broken fixed ? How much money was wasted in the department of education in the run up to the abolition of the 11+ ? Sometimes politicians really need a dose of reality.

36square

The BT survey shows there are only a handful of schools that are very selective. If you're not aiming for one of these, there's little to be worried about unless your child is not really bright enough to be in an "academic" school.
What the BT figures didn't show were the numbers of applicants. There are probably a least a few grammars where the number of applicants was less than or barely more than the places available, in which case all a child had to do was turn up for the tests, write their name at the front of the paper, hand it in and go home.

leftieM

Freefromdebt wrote: »

I find myself asking now - why was a system that wasnt broken fixed ?

Because of the poor outcomes for pupils who go to secondary schools. Pupils who go to grammars do better than their English peers but pupils who go to secondarys fare very poorly as a group. We have a serious problem of underachievement amongst, specifically, working class boys.

Pupils' attainment is raised by including them with higher attaining peers. It isn't lowered by including them with lower attaining peers (that's what the research claims anyway). I think politicians hope that if we chuck everyone in together we'll raise attainment for the bottom sets.

If only schools could be the centres for social engineering that politicians seem to think. All the time, money and effort is wasted if the home culture doesn't support the schools' efforts.