Can anyone tell me what a MidYis test consists of?

[LongChalk]

Hi! DS had his meet and greet for secondary on Fri and has been told he'll sit this test in Sept. They were told it's untutorable and online and it will adapt the questions to suit their ability. All good. Only issue is he's slightly aspie. No diagnosis but consistently told he falls in the 'grey area'. His biggest issue is anxiety over the unknown. I don't want to practice and frankly, it would be blood and stones but if I could tell him it was say, VR or NVR or maths or comprehension based or a mix then he could prepare his mind if that makes sense. I understand it's online with earphones which will suit him very well so that's great. The school website just says something about Durham university CEM.

As I said, I'm not interested in practice papers or anything like that. Just an overview to help stop him worrying between now and Sept. Thanks

[prh47bridge]

If you click on this link you will get a Powerpoint presentation which includes some sample questions.

[LongChalk]

Thank you, prh. I'll have a read of that later. I'm not too bothered about accessing sample questions, more being able to explain the format to him. That link looks quite comprehensive so hopefully it will put his mind at rest.

[LongChalk]

Bumping for any other advice or suggestions.

[Foxyloxy1plus1]

The test's next question is based on the answer to the previous one, if that makes sense, so it is tailored to the individual. Your son will be used to sitting at a computer, answering questions and working things out, so I don't think it will be very different from that.

As you say, you can't practice, because it's not designed to be a test you can revise for, but an exploration of the child's natural understanding. So there will be some pattern matching, some literacy and numeracy and problem solving. Each time he answers a question, the next one will be based on the answer he gives, to determine what are hop is strengths and areas for development.

It's very useful for schools because it gives an overview of the whole cohort, so you know whether your year group should be expecting above, average or below results and helps with grouping. It gives each child an A,B,C,D grade for each aspect.

When the test is finished, it will be communicated electronically to CEM in Durham, who then process the information and provide a print out for the school.

I don't think that your son will find things very different from computer work he has been used to. It may be that each form does the test in a lesson, because it's unlikely that there will be sufficient computers for the whole year group.

[LongChalk]

Thank you, Foxy. That's useful. I can see why it's a useful tool for schools. He won't be phased by using the computer. In fact his difficulties mean that a computer based test with earphones is very conducive to him doing well. It's just that if there's, say, maths in the test, he'll do so much better knowing that beforehand. A totally NT child would likely perform no different whether told the broad content that morning or not. DS on the other hand could 'fail' the maths part despite being an able mathematician if he went in expecting an English test.

[HereIAm20]

There is a mix of everything and as said above the difficulty increases or not based on how the child answers. So some maths, some verbal reasoning and some non-verbal reasoning. Explain as it if is a fun quiz.

The parents don't usually get told the scores either (although when our child changed schools at yr9 to go to selective we saw his scores as part of his "reference"). They are a number rather than a percentage with 100 being average. They are quite often what are used to set the children at secondary schools rather than SATS results (which pretty much mean nothing to anyone as soon as the result given!)