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

Charliedevil

Oh my my last post is full of auto correct mistakes!

confused_mummy_3

Charliedevil wrote: »

Reading all the posts on here about raw scores is interesting, however a little scary! Why is it so complicated? And it seems kids has to get around 90% to achieve a good standerised score! My daughter is actually physically sick at the moment worrying that she won't get into her chosen grammar school as he had 91 in age and c1 in gl. According to Victoria the c1 is stronger and with her other criteria her headmaster thinks she has a good chance! I am less optimistic, I expected a score between 95-105 and was shocked at her results! I can't build myself or her up for another fall! She wants me to reassure her that she won't be going to the secondary, I can't! She is now having to see a counsellor in school to help elivate her fears! (the local bullies are going to the secondary) I think thus whole thing is a mess! If it were judged in incas or class work she would walk into the grammar! The wait until may 28th is so unfair!

Surely by this stage all the forms have been sent of the relevant schools for a decision. The grammar would have an idea what the lowest and highest score they are going to take. Would it help if you phoned them and asked what the lowest score they are going to take.

I agree the wait is to long we waited long enough for the results and now we have to wait on a decision and possibly break their hearts all over again. I hope your daughter gets into the school of her choice and she is happy. xx

beccasmum

aqeworrier wrote: »

My child will be sitting the test this November and I'm really shocked and worried at how high they have to aim - my calculations tell me that your child scored over 77% when the two highest scores are used - to me this is a good score for a 10/11 year old - this really worries me as I was of the impression that a score in the 70 percentages plus would give an AQE score over 100. Do they need to aim for percentages in the 90's? Talk about pressure for the poor kids! :eek:

Are you sure about your calculations? Surely with the tests being out of 64 each the average would be 70%? 90 out of 128 equals 70.3%. Is this correct?

Charliedevil

According to the belb website the 1st preferance schools receive the forms next Friday! I don't think the schools would know anything as 2nd and 3rd preferances will come a lot later! Even then I don't think they would give out that type of info until after may 28th! If quintiles had been published this year it would have made things a bit clearer!

confused_mummy_3

I dont know about the grammar that you went to see, but the open night that we went to everyone was asked to fill out a slip of paper with their childs score on it so as the school would have a guide to what the scores were and how many children intended to apply for a place. This was not a commitment to the parent or to the school but just a guide so the school could roughly work out were the boundaries were going to be. Most people did fill in that slip of paper so the school would have a rough estimate.

Charliedevil

Victoria college has their open day before the results were issued! That was a good idea on the part of that school! A time machine would be handy right now!lol

aqeworrier

beccasmum wrote: »

Are you sure about your calculations? Surely with the tests being out of 64 each the average would be 70%? 90 out of 128 equals 70.3%. Is this correct?

You're absolutely right. As there are 58 questions in each paper I was dividing it by 116 - forgot that some questions carry more than one mark and each paper is worth 64 marks. Even so I still think that 70% is a good score for a 10/11 year old under such stressful conditions. I have to admit that I'm terrified by the whole process but hiding it well from my daughter and trying to keep encouraging her and keep her confidence up. She's a great wee soul and very keen to do the work - we've been working steadily since after Christmas as the school hasn't started practising with them yet - not until after Easter - and she's managing to obtain over 65% in the papers at this stage. To all who went through it last year, is this a good sign for this stage?

Charliedevil

@aqe worrier my daughter was about the same this time last year, she hit a barrier around sept/oct before the test where her papers were all around 78- 85% mostly 78 79 she got 91 In aqe. So unfortunately it seems a child needs over 90% to get a score of 100+ so unfair just being honest as I wish I had known this!

RikM

Kola wrote: »

Based on his raw score of 90 this gave a standardised score of 84. He scored 46 and 44 in his best two tests. It wont change anything but I was curious to know his raw score.

It doesn't work out that way...
Tests scored out of 64 mean that your combined raw score is out of 128.
90/128 = 0.703125 (call it 70%)

But that doesn't relate in any simple way to the standardized score.
Nominally that's out of 145 and 84/145 = 0.57931... (call it 58%).

But part of the standardization process resets the average mark on the AQE to 100... That's after they've adjusted the marks for age. So you would expect a child who scored average for their age group of entrants to have an AQE mark of 100 (or 69%, after standardization).

One of the reasons some of us are interested in the raw scores, is to see if there is any obvious logic to how the marks were arrived at.
So far, there's not enough information.

Third_Time_Mum

Charliedevil wrote: »

@aqe worrier my daughter was about the same this time last year, she hit a barrier around sept/oct before the test where her papers were all around 78- 85% mostly 78 79 she got 91 In aqe. So unfortunately it seems a child needs over 90% to get a score of 100+ so unfair just being honest as I wish I had known this!

I disagree. I refer to my post 426 above. It does depend on how difficult the practice papers are; in my son's school they must have been fairly difficult. Everyone in his class with a practice test average of 75%+ came out with over 100 in the AQE this year. You may need to get in the nineties in the actual tests to score one of the top marks but you don't need to have a top mark to get into a grammar school. Last year the highest cut off was Grosvenor at 104 (according to Belfast Telegraph - 103 according to Grosvenor's own website and prospectus). The girls' schools were accepting much lower scores than that.

To AQE worrier I would say that marks above 65% at this stage, without having done any practice at school, is pretty good so be encouraged!