Transfer Tests AQE/GL 2013-2014

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

Hi, I wondered if I could get some help from parents who have went through the AQE process over the past few years. I'm trying to find some RAW scores / percentages and the final score to help know where abouts we are sitting at the minute, I know the scores change each year due to how well all the children do etc but a rough guide would be great!

Would any parents that found out their child's RAW scores be willing to share it along with their final score ?

I remember reading somewhere about a percentage in the high 70s getting a score in the high 90s but I can't remember where.

Thank You!!! :j

There's a 2014-2015 forum for anyone going through the AQE process this year

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4975963

RikM

Veggie_Northern_Ireland wrote: »

Hi, I wondered if I could get some help from parents who have went through the AQE process over the past few years. I'm trying to find some RAW scores / percentages and the final score to help know where abouts we are sitting at the minute, I know the scores change each year due to how well all the children do etc but a rough guide would be great!

Would any parents that found out their child's RAW scores be willing to share it along with their final score ?

I remember reading somewhere about a percentage in the high 70s getting a score in the high 90s but I can't remember where.

Thank You!!! :j

There's a 2014-2015 forum for anyone going through the AQE process this year

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4975963

The trouble is, that comparison doesn't mean anything much.
It's more representative to compare your child to the results of their peer group on the same paper, but that's not going to be an option if the school is not running the practice papers.

My son, for example was producing practice papers, in school, in the 88 to 100% range. The actual raw scores averaged over his best two tests in the AQE, came out at 92% (so, in line with the practice tests). That was clearly above the class average, and his AQE result (118) was above average.

The AQE test, in that sense, is less of an exam an more of an IQ test, but I'm not sure how useful that is. My earlier comment on this was:

If they are using the normal distribution, it's going to end up with most kids being sandwiched into the 95-105 range. That's exactly where the school selection borderline tends to fall.
So the AQE scores show the least difference between candidates, in exactly the range where schools are going to have to pick and choose.

Unless maybe that's the point? When they reach that point in the selection process, they have to fall back on criteria other than score...?

The thing is, with the way the scores are standardised, most percentages are going to fall into the 95 to 105 band, unless the raw scores are clearly above or below the peer group average.

flymetothemoon_2

Veggie Northern Ireland - Raw Scores

I think a child probably needs to be scoring in and around 70-75% to get an AQE score of around 100. A very experienced teacher in my kids primary school told me that the school reckoned kids needed to score around 66% or more to get into a grammar and that was based on several years of 11+ results. So, I would say to anyone who is worrying that their kids might need a really high score of 85% plus that this is nonsense and they will not need such a high score. It is still the case that around 66% + will hold good for some grammars whilst others will require a score in the 70s but I believe there are probably only 1 or 2 grammars in NI each year where you just might need 80%.

My first child did the AQE a few years back and out of the 3 tests, the 2 best raw scores combined to give 72% which resulted in an AQE score high 90s. I have previously seen it suggested on these forums that the AQE score is really out of 145 (ie: the maximum achievable score) - even though no one scored higher than 127 that year) which would make it equivalent to 66%. My child got into an excellent grammar - is now in 4th yr and is excelling at everything and indeed is doing a lot better than many kids in the form who would have achieved higher AQE scores. So my message to everyone is, stop panicking about needing 85% plus because I don't believe that most grammars need any more than 75% and many will be accessible with less than 75%.
I would also agree with comments on here that kids do seem to do better in the real tests. This is probably partly due to the pressure but it is also because the real AQE papers are not as long or as difficult as many of the practice papers. My son is doing AQE this year and I have found the Windmill papers to be the longest & hardest - as a result his scores have dropped in these papers and I'm trying to convince him not to worry but it does dent their confidence when scores go down.