Transfer Test AQE 2014-2015

thestack

Originally posted by AO78

Greenisler - when you say you were horrified at the level of pressure, was this from the school? Other kids?

My children are a long way off from this stage but I’m already very conscious of it – which is why I dip in and out of this thread from time to time. I can’t find any information to confirm if there’s work still ongoing to find a Dept of Education backed solution to the mess or if we’re just stuck with it. If so, that’s scandalous.

As far as the pressure in concerned, my experience is that it’s all from parents. Everything I say is going to be anecdotal of course, but all around me, year after year, I see parents with absolutely no regard for how they are speaking in front of their children. (Of course this applies to all sorts of subjects, not just AQE.) Talk about how important it is, how stressful it is, how awful it is, mean spirited talk about how other kids - who isn’t very bright (or worse), who is getting tutored, who’s *only* doing well because they’re getting tutored (with a tone) etc etc etc And the children are soaking it all up. I was in a dr surgery last week and a lady was sitting with her p2 daughter telling someone, very loudly, about how her daddy is already ‘worried sick’ about how she’ll do in the AQE and what school she’ll end up in. And I guess they won’t think to blame themselves if she ends up stressed when the time comes. ‘Oh the pressure is awful’ – yep, she’s had 5 or 6 years of hearing how her daddy is sick with worry all over 3 little tests.


Very well said - totally agree the parents cause the stress.

leef04

Hi, I understand that parents receive a letter on the 23/05/15 to confirm what secondary schools our kids have been accepted into, but does anyone know what the date the local school boards have this completed by?

Kamand29

Hi all,

I had posted before, but forgot my password, so am only getting to post again now.

With regards to results etc dd had raw scores of 49, 55, 46.
Her highest two scores gave % scores of 77% and 86% which averaged out to 82%.

Her AQE score was 103. She has an October birthday.

I can only assume that the October average must have been higher than in other months as other children gaining a 103 got that score on an average of 80%.

It may also not even be as simple as birth month. From what I read on AQE website they look at the child's age on the DAY of the particular paper. Dd's birthday is 10th October. So for first exam she would have been 11yrs 0mths since it was before 10th. For second and third papers she was 11yrs 1mth since they were after 10th. This means the children are compared against a different pool of candidates for each paper.

Her first choice had been Friends', which is now unlikely, but we stuck it on anyway as you never know. Our next choice is Banbridge Academy and based on the past few years 103 would have gotten her in, but you never know, if it's a popular year she could narrowly miss out. Fingers crossed!

@Leef04 the letters get posted on the Friday. They won't arrive until Saturday 24th. From friends who have been through it, you can normally tell where your child has been placed without opening the letter as there will be one from the board, but also one from the school of placement (most of these will have some sort of distinct postmark/franking which allows you to identify the school) might be useful for us so we can prepare our children when opening their board letters if we know in advance the contents may not be what they had hoped for!

aqeworrier

My son did very well (score of 112) in the latest AQE and should definitely get into his first choice so I'm not posting this as I feel agrieved at his score but based on reading through the latest posts, I am starting to feel a bit concerned at how scores are worked out by comparing them against children of the same birth month or whatever age they are when they sit that particular test.

For example:
AQE
SCORE % (from 2 best papers)

118 = 91%
115 = 91 %
115 = 91%
112 = 87%
111 = 85%
111 = 84 %
107 = 82%
106 = 82%
106 = 82%
105
103 = 80%
103 = 80%
98 = 78%
96 = 74 %
88 = 66%
78 = 54%

Based on this table and setting aside the age that they are on sitting the test, some children are scoring exactly the same as others in the test but getting a lower AQE score. For example out of 3 children who got 91%, two got a score of 115 and one of 118. 3 AQE marks can make a huge difference in getting into a school. There's also a difference in the ones who got 82%. Whilst I understand that these are calculated againt the month they are born I really don't think that it is fair and although these particular scores are above what is necessary to get into most schools and it doesn't really make a difference to those particular children, imagine those who are borderline and this is happening to - those one or two marks make a real difference and could stop them getting into a grammar school at all even though they did just as well in the test as someone else.

I know people are going to say that it is fairer on younger children but I really don't think age matters. My own son is one of the younger ones and did very well and we all know children born in the summer/autumn who didn't do well and children born in the spring/summer who did brilliant and probably vice versa but what I am saying is that I don't think that children should just be compared against their own birth month. Rather the scores should simply be awarded in rank order based on what they actually achieved in the test. If a child has the ability I really don't think that a few months difference in their age matters. They have all had the same education from P1 - P7 and younger children can be just as capable as the older children and catch up very quickly from those early years.

I know of a particular child who missed out on their first choice school a couple of years ago due to 1 mark even though their actual raw score was 1% more than their friends but their friend got a slightly higher AQE score due to difference in month born and they actually got into that particular school even though they didn't score as well in the test.

I have another child to go through this which is why I'm still concerned about it. Does anybody else feel this way or is it just me?

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

I thought about that too aqeworrier, I would love to see what the final scores would have been if they had been compared to all children rather than just the children in their birth month. The way I see it, all of the children taking the test have had the same amount of years in education, I know some young summer children that seem far older and more mature that some September children so I don't see why they should be scored based on age.

We can't really complain because with her score there shouldn't be a problem getting into her first choice (althlough there are still some nerves that somehow the minimum score could take a huge jump!). But it would be so upsetting to be borderline and miss out on a school place by 1 mark when someone with a lower raw score got in with a slightly higher mark due to age.

Kamand29

"I am starting to feel a bit concerned at how scores are worked out by comparing them against children of the same birth month or whatever age they are when they sit that particular test.

There's also a difference in the ones who got 82%."

Not sure if I've quoted right!

My daughter was one of the 82% children. Her score was 103, 4 marks lower than the highest shown here. Had she gotten any of the other scores shown above, she'd probably get into her first choice. As it stands it is probably out the window. Due to our area, there is a chance that, depending on number of applicants, she could narrowly miss out on ALL of our local grammar schools, which is a shame since she is more than capable.

I myself have an April birthday and from an early age sat at the top of the class, feeling aggrieved if I was beaten by any of my 32 classmates in 11+ practice papers. I would have been indignant at the thought that some paper pusher was 'doing me a favour' by standardising my score as I knew I could beat my classmates on my own merit.

Yes, sometimes the eldest in a class is the brightest, but equally it could be a younger child. IT DEPENDS ON THE CHILD'S ABILITY, NOT THEIR AGE!

(Rant over!)

Busy_mum_3

Hi

I agree with all that has been said from AQEworrier, veggie,katmand79. Although I am not a statistician I wonder if there are enough numbers in each of these age groups to compare them accurately. I have wondered what happens if a child has the misfortune to be in an exceptionally high-scoring age band - say for example the percentage scores in a group range from 86-92% - surely it would not be fair to allocate the 86% child a v low AQE score - I suppose they must have some way of levelling this out - does anyone know? I agree they should all be compared to everyone else in the group.

Co_Down_mum

Anyone else stressing about next Saturday!!!!:eek::eek:

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

Hi Co Down Mum, I can't believe its just over a week until the school letters are out and its all over. We're confident that she'll get into her chosen school but there's still some nerves until we actually see it in written down for certainty!

What score does the school your child wants usually accept? We can't believe that the AQE info evenings are already starting for next years children already, it doesn't seem like a year ago that we were at it!

Co_Down_mum

Veggie_Northern_Ireland wrote: »

Hi Co Down Mum, I can't believe its just over a week until the school letters are out and its all over. We're confident that she'll get into her chosen school but there's still some nerves until we actually see it in written down for certainty!

What score does the school your child wants usually accept? We can't believe that the AQE info evenings are already starting for next years children already, it doesn't seem like a year ago that we were at it!

My daughter is borderline between a few schools so it depends on the level of applications for each. Some years she would get one over the other so we really have no idea at all where she could end up. I have been counting down the weeks since the result came out and cant believe its next week. She is pretty calm about the whole thing and we have talked through all of the options but we'll see what happens. We will know before she opens her envelope from the Education board as the school also sends a pack out and it will have their postal stamp on it so at least we can prepare ourselves for whatever it is