Transfer Test AQE 2014-2015

Busy_mum_3

Thank you Mrs Mum - I'm glad to hear that the familiarisation was a good experience - we haven't had ours yet. My worry is that my daughter says she doesn't want to go to the grammar - she wants to go to the local comp where most others from her school are going. I'm hoping that at the familiarisation day she'll see that these kids she doesn't know are not that scary! I think the highest score last year was 129. My niece got 125 a few years ago - I have made it clear to my D that we are not expecting that - we just want her to do the best she can. Really glad it's coming up soon - I don't think we can take much more practising! We are currently doing 2 past papers each week - that's all we hav time for as the school are not involved. My friend has twins at a school which is doing it big time - 6 papers each week and 2 saturday revision classes just before the tests start!

Mrs_mum

Hi Busy Mum, well you might be reassured to hear that a child from my daughters class wasn't overly enthusiastic about going to grammar but on coming out of the familiarisation day they were actually excited and said they wanted to go to the school. So hopefully your daughter will feel the same.

Your friends school are really taking it very seriously aren't they. I think there has to be a happy medium with the schools, of course you want the school to help prepare them but probably 6 a week is a bit intense!! Daughters school does 2 a week and sends home a bit of homework at the weekend and we do 2 at home with a bit of our own homework as well at the weekend. To be honest I can't wait til the test papers are over never mind my daughter. We didn't get home until a bit later on Monday night and I asked my daughter if she wanted to give the practice paper a miss that night but she didn't!! If it had have been me, you wouldn't have had to ask me twice about not having to do schoolwork! Lol

ooo000ooo

Mrs_mum wrote: »

We went to Belfast High familiarisation day yesterday. They made the kids feel really relaxed and all the kids seem to come out smiling and laughing. They didn't do a mock paper, they just showed them how to fill in the front cover sheet of the test paper, showed them where they would be sitting, played a quiz with them and gave them a goodie bag. Definitely think it helped with the nerves. They said the lowest score in the AQE was 55 and the highest score a child could get was 145! Don't know of anyone who has got 145, the highest I have heard of is 128. They said that your child will not lose points if they are an older child. They weren't able to give an explanation of how the scores were worked out. Would love to meet the person who actually came up with the formula for the standardised scores, lol

We were at the High school familiarisation yesterday as well, son came out flashing his new bag etc. Really well done! Be even better if he does well enough to get in there too.

Mrs_mum

Yea, they seemed to have it well organised and it was great to see the kids coming out happy. Hope they are as happy after the 3 tests!

MaggieMc

Mrs_mum wrote: »

We went to Belfast High familiarisation day yesterday. They made the kids feel really relaxed and all the kids seem to come out smiling and laughing. They didn't do a mock paper, they just showed them how to fill in the front cover sheet of the test paper, showed them where they would be sitting, played a quiz with them and gave them a goodie bag. Definitely think it helped with the nerves. They said the lowest score in the AQE was 55 and the highest score a child could get was 145! Don't know of anyone who has got 145, the highest I have heard of is 128. They said that your child will not lose points if they are an older child. They weren't able to give an explanation of how the scores were worked out. Would love to meet the person who actually came up with the formula for the standardised scores, lol

AQE letters came out today. Last year scores ranged from 70 to 129. If your child has done any of the NFER tests, those scores will give you a good indication on the level your child is at.

Mrs_mum

Thanks MaggieMc, yes got home from work and saw the letter from the AQE office. She is doing well, hopefully her nerves won't get the better of her. If she can replicate her scores that she gets at school she should be fine (fingers crossed)!

MaggieMc

Mrs_mum wrote: »

Thanks MaggieMc, yes got home from work and saw the letter from the AQE office. She is doing well, hopefully her nerves won't get the better of her. If she can replicate her scores that she gets at school she should be fine (fingers crossed)!

Same here, although at times I think I am more nervous than my daughter:)

flymetothemoon_2

We also got the letter from AQE today & we're off to familiarisation visit tomorrow. Thank heavens my wee man has really settled down and is doing much better, he got 86% and 94% in school tests this week - such a turnaround from September - at least he now knows he can do it! I just hope he keeps this up for the next 6 weeks. I'll be so glad to get this all over with - it seems like we 're continuously doing homework or tests !

By the way, the tutor has told me that it is impossible for any child to score above 130 so I don't understand why AQE say 145 is the maximum achievable score. This cannot be right, as no child has ever scored higher than 129 over the past 5 years so I think the tutor must be spot on. He also told me that 2 of the AQE Papers are based on KS2 Level 4 work whilst the other paper is based on KS2 Level 5 work and is therefore harder. I had never heard this before but I do know that when my first child did AQE in 2010 most of the kids in her school reckoned the 2nd paper was much harder than the other 2! Tutor reckons they never give the hardest paper first, it is always either paper 2 or paper 3.

Busy_mum_3

I have also heard that one paper may be harder. I don't understand why this should be so - surely if the average of two papers are taken to allow for an "off-day" then they should be of equal difficulty. Let's just hope that if there's an off day it would need to be for the hardest paper so the two easier are not wasted!

Mrs Mum - thanks for that - glad to hear the familiarisation day promoted the school well. I did hear that 129 was the highest ever score - maybe it's an exponential jump then to 145 which must be 100% in two papers.

Mrs_mum

Yea, can't see myself how any child could score 145! As you said Busy Mum it would take the child to score 100% in both tests and probably they would have to be the youngest to allow for the extra marks for age standardisation. Daughters teacher also told her that there is a harder paper so they were to push themselves with the first paper to get as many marks as they can.