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

one2escape

Using the carrot approach and it seems to have helped if practice tests are to go by. First one he doodled on his test for a hour so you can imagine the scores in school. The headmaster was concerned. Using a carrot of a game for his Xbox he really wants if he does his best (not well just tries) in tests next practice test he scored the highest out of everyone doing the practice tests. This is what we are dealing with!!!! He could get a really good score or a really low one. There is no inbetween.

flymetothemoon_2

Newbie5 wrote: »

So glad to see this thread starting, followed last years and to be honest is where I found out alot of info. Have daughter sitting test in November, been doing tests all summer. School really didnt bother that much in P6 so got a tutor who comes to the house every week. Don't know how much help he is but makes me feel like I'm doing my best for her! Results have def improved sitting in the mid 70%s most tests and to be honest am quite happy with that. Anyone know what lowest scores accepted this year for Belfast schools, Victoria, Methody or BRA? Not easy to find this out and know it will have been different to last years. Any help welcome, bring on Christmas when it's all over !

Hey Newbie 5

Lowest scores accepted for Sept 2010 & Sept 2011 intakes respectively were as follows
Victoria College 88 (2010) 90/91 (2011)
BRA 95 (2010) 97 (2011)
Methody 100 (2010) within a range of 95-99 (2011)
There is a very hepful article on the Belfast Telegraph website (in the education section, post-primary selection) entitled 'Northern Ireland's Grammar School entrance test lottery' which gives all the highest and lowest scores accepted by all N.I. grammars in 2010. This article was published in October 2010 and I was hoping the Bel Tel will do this again this year and every year as it is a great help to parents going through the process. My child sat the AQE last year and I know how stressful the whole process is, at least she got into a grammar at the end of it all but many of her friends who would have gotten into grammars in 2010 did not get in in 2011 as the lowest scores accepted by the schools in Belfast/Newtownabbey all went up! So it really is a lottery, you can only take the past scores as a guide. Best of luck - hope it all works out for you.
i

ni-mum

flymetothemoon wrote: »

Hey Newbie 5

Lowest scores accepted for Sept 2010 & Sept 2011 intakes respectively were as follows
Victoria College 88 (2010) 90/91 (2011)
BRA 95 (2010) 97 (2011)
Methody 100 (2010) within a range of 95-99 (2011)
There is a very hepful article on the Belfast Telegraph website (in the education section, post-primary selection) entitled 'Northern Ireland's Grammar School entrance test lottery' which gives all the highest and lowest scores accepted by all N.I. grammars in 2010. This article was published in October 2010 and I was hoping the Bel Tel will do this again this year and every year as it is a great help to parents going through the process. My child sat the AQE last year and I know how stressful the whole process is, at least she got into a grammar at the end of it all but many of her friends who would have gotten into grammars in 2010 did not get in in 2011 as the lowest scores accepted by the schools in Belfast/Newtownabbey all went up! So it really is a lottery, you can only take the past scores as a guide. Best of luck - hope it all works out for you.
i

Where did you find the Victoria score? BT didn't give their scores, just percentiles. 88 must have been special circumstances. I know someone who didn't get into Victoria with 92 and ended up in the grammar stream in Lagan.

flymetothemoon_2

ni-mum wrote: »

Where did you find the Victoria score? BT didn't give their scores, just percentiles. 88 must have been special circumstances. I know someone who didn't get into Victoria with 92 and ended up in the grammar stream in Lagan.

Hi ni-mum

I got the Victoria College scores directly from Victoria College. I rang last year and asked what the percentiles (as quoted in the Belfast Tele) actually meant and what exactly was the lowest score they accepted in 2010 for AQE pupils as I knew this would be one of my school choices for my daughter in 2011 and therefore I really wanted them to explain what score was needed. The lady told me that the lowest they accpeted in 2010 from an AQE pupil was 88 and she never mentioned SC. I rang them again a few months ago and was told the lowest AQE score accepted this year was 90/91 and I do know a girl who got in with a score of 90 and no SC that I am aware of.

Victoria is using percentile rankings so that they have a single system for admitting applicants who completed either AQE or GL even though it is clearly impossible to say that any 2 different testing systems are, in fact, equal. No doubt, this is the reason that no other grammar school in NI has adopted this approach. What they are doing is highly quesionable and many parents have already raised this.

All of that aside, i'm not convinced that parents can be absolutley sure if all schools are being honest about the lowest scores they have accepted. If they really want to accept a particular child who has a lower score than others - what is to stop them? I hope the Belfast Tele publish a similar article this year as I have another child coming up and therefore want to keep an eye on how the scores settle out this year and next.

dee1000

Hi

Just wanted to keep this post alive as i am sure we are all still up to our eyes helping our children.

Just a little concern I had and wanted to share, I had my parent teacher meeting last week and we got dd's incas results. Her teacher had said ideally they would want the incas to be a year and a half above their real age for pupils doing the transfer test. DD's are 7 months above in both numeracy and literacy. I am worried now does this mean she is not suitable for this test. He said not to worry but you cant help wondering are there any similarities in these tests

She is still doing practice papers for me and can get anywhere between 70% and 80% most tests. Although she isnt doing as well in the papers at school for some reason dont know whether they are harder or she feels under pressure.

Anyway i hope everyone is not too stressed,any info on the incas would be great

Denise

Fortune

Hi all
Like previous poster I want to keep this thread alive. DD will be sitting GL Assessments. She's currently doing a range of practice papers but can find the GL ones tricky enough. I just think the system is soo unfair with some schools offering support for children and others not. There is no level playing field. My dd has also sat her INCAS lately and I will be meeting her teacher next week discuss results and how she is settling in to P7. I feel just so fed up with the whole process and wish we didn't start it at all. I do not know how we get from the marks in the papers to percentile scores!! I am worried I am setting my child up for failure!! How is everyone else feeling???

flymetothemoon_2

Dee1000

When my daughter first sat INCAs tests 3 yrs ago (in P5) I didn't even know what they were (I think it was only the 2nd year they had been used at P5), however the numeracy result really worried me as it was 7 mths below her actual age - I was astounded, as were many parents whose kids came out lower than they had expected them to. The primary school told us the INCAS tests were unreliable and had already been disowned by the very people who had designed them in the first place. They said that the results for most kids were below what they would have expected and therefore I shouldn't worry about them. Last year 22 out of 28 kids in this class sat the AQE and all 22 got in grammars of their choice -great result all round - therefore I think the school was quite right about INCAS - it is not worth the paper it's written on - and they do not support it but are required to get the kids to do it. So try not to worry about it. The school also said that their experience over the years of the old 11+ has shown them that kids needed to be scoring approx two thirds or more to get into grammars ie: about 66% and more - this also helped reduce my worries as my child's scores in the practice tests were never in the 80's and I had been wondering was she was good enough. Of course she was, silly me. Good luck to everybody over the next few weeks, thinking of you all at this stressful time.

dee1000

flymetothemoon,

Thank you so much you have eased my mind a little. Sometimes i think some of the teachers are against this test too
which doesnt help either, the attitude can be a little negative. I personally hate the incas how can they compare a paper examination to a computer based test it just doesnt make sense. I really appreciate your input on the incas and the percentage needed to get into a grammar school, its been very useful.

Fortune,

I am right there with you feeling guilty for my child, the only comfort I have is that she is the one who really wants to do this we gave her a choice in P6 and she was all for it. She still is and she is working so hard poor little thing, I still get days when i think she is not going to get this and she is going to be heartbroken. I dread that morning of the results
But it will be over soon and hopefully it will all be a distant memory.

Denise xx

beccasmum

Does anyone know if the Belfast Tele are going to do a write up on what scores each school admitted this September? I really think that in the absence of any DENI official info it would be usful if we had something to go by?:)

EBB66

Not much point in worrying too much on what schools accepted scores last year as since its a standardised score it could change a lot from one yr to the next depending on what everyone gets...........:(