Transfer Test AQE 2015-2016 *NEW THREAD*

Flashfriend

Hi Miamam,
My daughter is coping ok but it's me trying to keep calm when she is making so many silly mistakes at the minute, which is the problem! She sees a tutor for a hour a week because her English was weaker. Marks are in the late 70's now but I'm hoping she climbs into the 80's in the coming weeks. School is preparing them well. The class average last week was 63% so she's doing ok I guess. Is your daughter scoring much higher?

MiaMam

Hi Flashfriend, she's been consistently early 80s for about the past few weeks and apart from ironing out silly mistakes I can't see her climbing much higher than that. Her English is excellent and maths is average so English pushes her score up. People have been freaking me out about "peaking too early" so hopefully she hasn't!

My other worry would be her freaking out on the day so making a big effort not to be stressed in front of her. She has a tendancy to worry about things so keeping her calm is key!!

I actually don't know what her class average is. I'll ask the teacher tomorrow, it would be a good indicator of her progress.

flymetothemoon_2

Hi Folks

Just for info, after my DS did AQE last year, I obtained his raw marks and the average of his best 2 papers was almost 81%. He had been awarded an AQE score of 103. To be honest, I was disappointed for him that he had not done better because many of his practice papers had been in the high 80s and some were in the 90s so 81% was a lot lower than I expected - I guess he just didn't perform to his best in the real tests - probably due to the pressure. However, he had enough to get into his chosen school - that was the main thing. Phew !!

When several other people posted their kids scores on this forum last year together with the average of their best 2 papers it looked as though kids needed to be scoring around 78% or 79% last year to obtain the average AQE score of 100.

As has been reported, AQE scores seem to have been rising now that the system has bedded in so last years results may well have been higher than in some of the previous years pushing the 'average' score higher.

Our Primary School had advised (based on their analysis of the previous 5 yrs of AQE that they reckoned kids needed to score around 75% (or a bit higher or lower) to achieve an AQE score of 100.

Both of my kids have now been through AQE and without doubt, it is a bruising experience, so stressful, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end for all of you . I hope the above does not cause anyone to panic, rather I just thought that factual information might be helpful. Just remember, a score in the mid to high 90s is good enough for many grammars. If you are not yet aware of the lowest score accepted last year by each of the schools you are interested in you could ring them and ask.

Good luck to you all in the coming weeks and months - try to keep calm :):):)

MiaMam

That's very interesting Flymetothemoon. Thanks for posting. I know it's almost impossible to correlate percentages to an exact aqe score because of weighting etc., but it's nice to have a rough idea of where they should be aiming.

flymetothemoon_2

MiaMam wrote: »

That's very interesting Flymetothemoon. Thanks for posting. I know it's almost impossible to correlate percentages to an exact aqe score because of weighting etc., but it's nice to have a rough idea of where they should be aiming.

Hi MiaMam
You're very welcome. I know how you must feel but as RikM has pointed out, unfortunately it is impossible to really work this system out!
That said, when we did AQE in the 2nd year, I would have given anything for some decent and factual information. It was all so unknown back then and that made it much more stressful.
Last year, I was definitely less stressed with because I had a better understanding and had found a lot of helpful info and support on these forums and in newspapers.

northdown23

How is your child doing so far ? Mine is doing old AQE actual test from a few years ago in school. She is ranging from 50% up to 70% - I am not sure if this is enough though. My other child who is in 5th year now was up and down and was always in the late 60's or mid 70's. She got 105 in he AQE. I just wish it was all a bit more clearer !

MiaMam

Hi Northdown, my daughter's school asked us not to do old AQE papers at home as they were using them in school but they haven't started them yet! Wish they'd hurry up so I'd get an idea of her score on them.

So far on CEAs and Windmill papers, she's in the early 80s (%) which I'm happy enough with.

MiaMam

flymetothemoon wrote: »

Hi MiaMam
You're very welcome. I know how you must feel but as RikM has pointed out, unfortunately it is impossible to really work this system out!
That said, when my DD did AQE in the 2nd year, I would have given anything for some decent and factual information. It was all so unknown back then and that made it much more stressful.
Last year, I was definitely less stressed with my DS because I had a better understanding and had found a lot of helpful info and support on these forums and in newspapers.

I think getting as much info as possible on the exam and scoring process definitely makes it less stressful. Thanks for posting your experiences.

northdown23

thats great you are getting good results so far Mia Mam Our school used to do Windmill in P6 but now in P7 its all old AQE papers. The whole process is so stressful ! I know she is more than capable she just rushes the paper to get it finished. Not sure how to get around that ! Shes at a tutor since February just to take the pressure off me. I just wish her scores would climb a little ! I don't let her see me stressing at all and constantly praise her for her efforts. What a nightmare this whole thing ! Appreciate the feedback and comments on here :-)

Flashfriend

Hi northdown23,
I'm starting to feel the pressure too! They still have 7 weeks to bring the marks up. I don't think my daughter has peaked yet with her marks. I'm trying to keep calm and positive too!