Transfer Test AQE 2014-2015

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

I've seen a few posts on sites from the last few years for the AQE, haven't seen one yet for children that will be sitting the tests in November 2014 so thought I'd post one and hope for some replies

Has everyone started preparing for them already, how long ago have you started? How many tests, extra work are they doing at the minute?

I've noticed that when talking about it people never seem to write the primary school that their child is in or the grammar that they hope to get into, is there a reason for that?

I'm new to Internet forums! :rotfl:

Mr_Bun

Our daughter will be sitting hers in November this year:eek:
Her school is holding after school classes once a week where they do a paper and then get it home for us to mark.
It's about all the schools are allowed to do apparently:mad:
We are getting her a tutor next month so hopefully that should get her sorted.
The whole thing is an absolute disgrace,there was nothing wrong with the old system IMO

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

It's my little sister that will be sitting it, to be honest I think I prefer the aqe in the way that they have 3 tests and choose the best two scores, hopefully it'll give them a better chance of scoring as high as they can. The problem is schools not being allowed to do the tests etc. her school has after school club but at the minute their just doing extra math/English work, no practice papers yet. (Tho another school close to us has their kids doing tests in class).

She's done two at home but I wonder what scores most kids are getting at this stage and how much they are likely to raise over the months.

stevieboy11

Our primary did a fantastic job of preparing the kids and gave great advice as to what you need to do yourself. We didnt have a tutor but did do a practice test at least once a week and then an additional one a week during the easter, summer and halloween holidays

Rather than being a lot and putting pressure on our child, it made the idea of doing the test routine and took the stress off - waiting for the results was more stressful.

The approach must have worked - 95% of the pupils sat the test, the scores ranged from 92 - 124 and all but five kids scored more than 100.

My advice is that no matter what the school does, you need to get in there yourself. At our school if say the child got five wrong in a test, they had to do the corrections for homework, and the parent had to set them twice as many new questions as they got wrong in addition - and then mark them - for us it allowed us to see that our child was great at maths, but needed to work on grammar

I think the reason why no one mentions names is because every primary has their own interpretation of the rules and no one wants to rock the boat.

Hope this helps

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

I'm not too sure how well her school will prepare them (this is the first year that they've done the after school club for it) so I'm hopeing to help her at home. So far she's done 3 past papers with 60% 54% and 71% and I'm looking at what ones I should order now. I think we're going to go with the practice papers from TheTransferTest website.

What papers have you all found best? What marks are they sitting at at the minute?

:j

trigger151

It's good to see a thread started for the 2014 kids. My daughter will be sitting her tests in November. Her school have started an after school club doing a P6 test each week and building up the knowledge. She has came on well but no where near ready for the full AQE papers. Also each week the school sends home a test at the weekend to complete which is marked in school on a Monday. The school is doing what it can but also bearing in mind they are not allowed to do too much. So far I think this is enough but may think of getting a tutor after the summer break if she needs some extra help. It is a lot for a 9 year old to take on but just trying to keep everything calm at the minute. I look forward to hearing how other kids are getting on.

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

I love seeing replies and conversations on here :j My sister has a sept birthday so is one of the oldest in her class but is very young and immature for her age (but extremely competitive in everything), I'm aiming on doing a practice paper on Sundays and one on an evening half way through the week is there's time that it fits in and isn't stressful. She does ok but panics when there's a question that she really struggles with (she's been told it's still early days and she hasn't even covered a lot of the areas in school yet).

It's nice to see how other people are planning and dealing with the stress of it, even this early.

Has everyone completed their registration for aqe yet?

trigger151

I hope a few others come on to post in the forum. It looks to have been quiet the last couple of years but I have enjoyed following the posts. My DD has a June birthday and is holding up ok against the older children but certainly not in the top group. Someone has said she will get some sort of allowance for her age but not sure if that is true or how that will work. I haven't got the entry form in yet, hope to get photos taken next week then get it in. I agree that the children haven't covered everything they need in school. Still work to cover in P6 and then a couple of months of P7 so I am ok with that. I'm thinking that going over tests and concentrating on picking speed up is important for DD at the minute and will see how it all goes over the summer. The children finding out their schools today have definitely made me thankful that in a year it will all be over. Looking forward to it!!

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

Yes aqe use a system that divides the kids into groups with birthdays the same month, then their results are compared before deciding the final marks, not too sure exactly how the marks are done We completed the forms about two weeks ago (you can hand deliver them to aqe office to get it done quicker) and received her details the next day! It says upto 3 weeks so we were pretty surprised when it came through the door.

It seems that's aren't many people online talking about it yet, it'll be here so quick when you think there's just over 4 weeks left until the end of term, then summer and they only have September and October!

Mrs_mum

So glad to see a thread for the kids sitting the AQE in Nov 2015. Daughter is doing old 11plus papers in school at the moment (the science bit is taken out) but it seems to be a few papers are then put back together again so there can be anything from 73 to 85 questions in a paper and she is panicking trying to complete these papers in an hour. Her percentage score has been all over the place, from mid 40s to mid 60s, we were hoping that she would be hitting the 70s by now but I think her confidence is a bit knocked. When we go over the papers it is really frustrating because she knows how to do the majority of the paper, it is just silly mistakes or she hasn't finished the paper. Is other schools using old 11plus papers?

Mr_Bun

Our daughter is the same...one minute she gets 75, the next she could be below 40!!!
She seems to be having diffs with the maths problems,not understanding what they are asking her,which is a real shock cos she is studying GCSE level maths at an after school study class:eek:
We have a tutor coming in the next few weeks...