Support thread for parents of chilldren sitting the transfer test in 2011

Mollykins

My daughter's best friend got 122! Wow!
Have filled in form but really unsure if her first choice is the right school for her. Husband quite happy. She's adamant. I'm uneasy. Time will tell. She might not get in anyway. Knew we'd made the right choice for ds. Why is this so hard????

Kola

beccasmum wrote: »

Hi Kola, Great to hear that people are starting to get some answers out of AQE. Did they happen to say if the test was out of 124 this year and why? Also were there many kids scoring up there or will it be a mad dash for places if your score is sitting around 100? Hope you don't mind me asking but you have more info than any of us.:j

Hi Beccasmum,

They couldnt tell me yet what the score was out of this year. I did ask what the top score would be if all questions were answered correctly. I did ask what the range of scores were but they didn't seem to understand my question. Going to email again and word the question differently. Will let you know.

dprovan

Am I the only one finding it difficult to come to terms with dd scores. Dd sat both tests and got 101 and a B2 (bottom score of B2). The vast majority of her class got A's in the gl test and scores below or around the 100-106 mark in the AQE. Her school defined her in the top 1/3 of her class however her gl score is probably in the bottom 30% of the class. Additionally, many children who scored less than her in tests all year/or in the AQE have got two grades higher in the gl.

Rationally I can see that it is a one off test and she has just had a bad day, but i am really struggling to come to terms with the fact that this one indicator means she will miss her first choice school. I am also really really sad that she is ignoring her AQE mark and focussing on the B2 which se perceives as a failure compared to her friends A'S. We have tried to promote how well she done on both test and tried to rationalise the points above, but we know how children are, she is not as interested in her parents view she is more interested in her peers persepctive and everyone is talking about the gl score and how school choice number 1 is the school to get into.

I have no reason to request any special circumstances she has just had a day when it hasn't went for her. Is anyone else struggling to come to terms with the whole process? Six days on and I awoke in the middle of the night and couldnt get to sleep thinking about it.

confused_mummy_3

dprovan I dont know what way GL is marked with regards age. Is your child one of the older children?
I have found that children with younger birthdays in my childs school have scored well above my son who was scoring away above them in the practice papers.

dprovan

confused mummy, her birthday is late December so she is one of the older ones. Interestingly there is only one of her friends who also scored lower than expected and she is older again.

beccasmum

There has been alot of speculation about the GL test because it is computer marked. So it takes very little to knock a system like that off. If a child happens to put an answer in the wrong line it could knock the whole page of answers out and there is no-one looking for errors like that. I think this could lower a child's score, not because they don't know the answer but because they are not used to this format in school. Even a remark will not help as the computer will always come up with the same result as they say there is no human error involved.

molly68

cck wrote: »

Flymetothemoon,
In 2009 one of the "excellent" grammars accepted the following,
55 A grades, 10 B1's, 11 B2's 20 C1's and 7 C2's
This is a school that turned away A grades 20 years ago!!
Over the last three years this school has Been well below the N Ireland average for A level results

Quoting from the recent inspection report which is available online
"The quality of teaching ranged from very good to inadequate"
"lessons were over directed and the pupils remained passive"
"a majority of teachers raised Issues in relation to the ineffective communication across the staff at all levels"

I would class this as a "sub standard" grammar school, and in reality is grammar in name only.

hi CCK,
I know the school that you are referring to. I'm aware of the situation with staff members but changes in the next year will hopefully correct this. It's a great school with very happy children and it's gcse and A level results would definately not class it as a "sub standard" school at all! There is a link to all n.ireland post primary schools gcse and A'level results in a previous post. Unfortunately I'm unable to copy it but if you look back you can see they are well above average.

gsurgenor

Hi, I didn't get the Belfast Telegraph edition this week which listed the grades accepted by schools last year, can anyone tell me the lowest grade accepted by Antrim Grammar?

Thanks

confused_mummy_3

gsurgenor wrote: »

Hi, I didn't get the Belfast Telegraph edition this week which listed the grades accepted by schools last year, can anyone tell me the lowest grade accepted by Antrim Grammar?

Thanks

Antrim Grammar Highest score accepted 125 lowest 97
applications 165, admitted 105
Antrim grammar did not use quintiles

Kola

beccasmum wrote: »

Hi Kola, Did they happen to say why there was no quintile info this year or what way the scores are spread out this year or why the test was only out of 124 this year. Sorry for all the questions but this system has me baffled, if 102 equals 86% what did a kid have to score to get 123? WOW!

Here is a further reply, If it helps

We do not know where the vast majority of children's score's lay. With 100 as the middle mark there will always be a tighter number of children around this score and the further your move away from this number, the number of children decreases. (For example 30% of children scored between 99-109, 30% scored between 110-123 and 40% scored under 99). This is the nature of standardisation.

Unfortunately quintiles do not exist this year, for several reasons. While they were a useful guide for parents, however they were misused by some areas of the media and others, and turned into grades etc which was always inaccurate and caused more confusion.
Several post grammar schools had already published criteria stating that quintiles would be part of their admissions process and for that reason, for this year only, a guide has been provided for their information to help them with that.
In terms of understanding your score there are several factors to keep in mind;
1. The lowest scores accepted by the grammar schools you are interested in for the previous two years. This can act as a guide, though obviously the boundaries can vary slightly.
2. The middle mark is 100. A child with a score over 100 should have no trouble getting a grammar school place, keeping in mind point 1. A child with the score in 90's will also have a good chance of getting a place in a grammar school, though it does depend on the school.
3. The highest score acheived this year was 123, as you already are aware.

The top score acheiveable would not have been much more than 123, these children scored very highly. With standardisation, the bar is set at the middle mark and simply keeps going until the highest candidate's score is reached, in this case 123.

I hope this is of some help to you, if you have any other queries please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Regards,
AQE