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Original poster

Urgent please share! children sitting the 11+ exam Slough Consortium (Kendrick) on Saturday can cheat

120 replies

Lindy123 · 11/09/2014 12:31

This has been raised with Kendrick and Reading schools and so far the response has been "Raise a formal complaint" and "we can look at this next year"

Please share urgently!

The morning exam at Reading Boys will finish at around 11.00AM, the morning exam at Kendrick finishes at 11.30AM. The afternoon exam at Kendrick does not start until 13.00 hours with registration half an hour before at 12.30PM. This leaves a possible one and a half hours in which exam content could be distributed to friends and family and content becomes viral.
With this lack of safeguarding a boy could sit the morning exam and his twin sister could sit the afternoon exam and they would be able to have lunch together in between and share the content of the morning paper which is quite feasible as they would not be competing for the same school.

OP posts:
prh47bridge · 12/09/2014 01:38

Verbal reasoning tests are not about vocabulary. They are about reasoning. In order to cheat you would need the exact wording of each question. A paraphrase won't do. Even an adult coming out of a VR test would not be able to give you sufficiently precise information about the questions to allow you to cheat.

Similarly with NVR. Unless the person who has taken the test can reproduce the questions exactly as written they won't be able to help you.

Original poster
Lindy123 · 12/09/2014 00:46

Fantastic! We could do a deal...It would cost us about 250 grand each to put our kids through a private school, say like the calibre of Wellington college. Your DS is experienced and bright, he just sat a test today. How about I grease your palm with 10 grand (cheap at half the price) you brief DS on remembering as many aspects of the verbal reasoning paper as possible (he's bright and experienced and probably can speak quite good English) the minute he comes out, you text me the vocab and Bobs your uncle....as a consolation, if he doesn't get in, but because of his help my DD gets in, I'll up the payment to 30 grand as it's still a lot cheaper that 250 grand each. Do we have a deal? Absolutely possible with the way the test is run and possibly how some people will think. I'll have my phone in hand!

OP posts:
FlowersForAlgernon · 12/09/2014 00:35

St Bernard's first sitting.

Original poster
Lindy123 · 12/09/2014 00:33

Is it part of The Slough Consortium exam? If so it includes six schools. what time does he sit and where?

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FlowersForAlgernon · 12/09/2014 00:25

He sat bucks today, at school, and will sit slough on sat.

I think Slough used to do them in school like bucks does but they changed to a sat exam a few years back. Don't know why.

Sitting in school was excellent. Much more low key for the kids and no stress for me. I think Sat is going to be an absolute nightmare. Not sure how we'll drop him off / pick him up. School says there is no parking anywhere.....

Original poster
Lindy123 · 12/09/2014 00:18

@flowers...not familiar with Bucks....as you said "I have a DS in the morning sitting," I misunderstood and thought you meant tomorrow morning instead of "had". Yes I'm aware of Saturday hence this thread. Sounds like your son did well. Hope he gets and if he doesn't I hope that somebody sitting the afternoon didn't have knowledge of the morning papers' content.

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FlowersForAlgernon · 12/09/2014 00:11

Bucks was today. Everybody's already sat that. He was fine with it. Finished on time etc. It's the reading & slough consortium on Sat.

Original poster
Lindy123 · 12/09/2014 00:01

@flowers....Love it! Maybe I need to take a leaf from your book! Not your fight. Hope he does really really well. If it's Bucks, Irony is, I do know some of what's on that paper. It's scandalous.

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FlowersForAlgernon · 11/09/2014 23:46

I have a DS in the morning sitting. What's the going rate for tips? He needs some pocket money

Original poster
Lindy123 · 11/09/2014 23:42

@alphablock
I was privy to some of the vocab from the VR paper within minutes of that exam taking place. I can't verify because I didn't sit the paper but I have it, I won't publish it here. I will keep it as I'm pretty sure it's accurate as I got it from a very able candidate. I would be happy to corroborate it with the examining board if needed in order to prove the exchange of information is happening. I think lots of parents, like I did until Monday, assume that even if there are two sittings then kids would never be allowed to mix. Beggars belief.

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alphablock · 11/09/2014 23:32

Thanks Lindy123 and poisoned. We went out for Pizza and she is totally fine now and once she calmed down it sounded like she actually did OK under the circumstances. I had no idea there were 2 sittings until we were waiting to register this afternoon and also no idea if any useful info was passed from morning kids to afternoon kids via parents. I did hear people discussing the subject matter of the comprehension, but this turned out to be incorrect, so my view is that there was a lot of misinformation rather than any obvious evidence of cheating.

Hopefully DD will pass, but if we do have to appeal I shall certainly point out that the pre-exam discussion did have an impact on her performance.

Original poster
Lindy123 · 11/09/2014 23:21

@ alphablock
She is a star for even taking it but I'm sure you've told her that. Not poor her, great her for trying! She may have done loads better than she thinks even though her perception is not saying that. I hope she gets in. If she doesn't and @poisonbypen is right. let's hope its not because some other child cheated if indeed they were able. I don't know the system in Bucks so cannot comment.

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Original poster
Lindy123 · 11/09/2014 23:16

@poisonedbypen

I can't comment about other boroughs as I don't have the critical facts pertaining to those schools. I am only aware of the facts pertaining to The Slough Consortium (which is brand new this year as is the exam and its' administration). Every grammar school devises its own admissions policy, which is absolutely fine, no problems there. However, every parent, person, pupil, human being, has the right, the ability, by law, to bring a complaint of "Mal administration" concerning the administration of the 11+ exam. Which is what we are doing. We are moving through the correct channels but this flaw was flagged only on Monday and we have been fobbed off In the hope that we'll go away. Hence the press and this post.
If all the other boroughs are "doing it wrong" then it's about time somebody contested them maybe? If they can adequately prove their admin is robust and safeguards against the distribution of exam content to prospective candidates, then fine, no problem, we're all happy to get on with it.

OP posts:
poisonedbypen · 11/09/2014 23:12

Poor her. Most people I've heard of said it was hard (& Berks people note, morning & afternoon exams with a gap in between for different schools).

alphablock · 11/09/2014 23:09

DD took Bucks test this afternoon. Mock on Tuesday was considered by many kids to be "easy" and news quickly spread that kids who took real exam this morning also found it easy (some parents had spoken to friends whose kids sat it). My daughter was therefore gutted that exam wasn't easy and was close to tears during exam as she assumed she was the only person finding it hard.

poisonedbypen · 11/09/2014 23:03

But what about those taking the tests in the coming months? I'm sure that happens in other counties too, although Bucks may be unusual in that they can sit the same test until next July. And it isn't all for the same school, it's for 13 different schools.

Original poster
Lindy123 · 11/09/2014 23:02

@glacecherries

My daughter is totally and utterly oblivious to any of this, but thanks for the advice. Funny how people don't discuss how they cheated in the 11+ exam, perhaps that's why you've never heard of any cheating going in in Slough then?

OP posts:
Original poster
Lindy123 · 11/09/2014 22:57

@poisonedbypen......I agree aspects of life are not fair and we as humans try to control what we can to the best of our ability. We parents in Berkshire feel that the administration of the 11+ exam is something that is not "life" or "chance" or "luck" and should be administered in the same way GCSE's are. Morning kids don't leave until the 2nd sitting is in.

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Original poster
Lindy123 · 11/09/2014 22:53

@poisoned by pen

It's a shame it's just discussed and no action taken. We have written to the Head, The Head of Education at Reading, the press are involved and mumsnet along with other forums. We're not just discussing, we're trying to action something.

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Original poster
Lindy123 · 11/09/2014 22:49

@catherineofmumbles

Hello and thanks, you are right...I will do that first thing, right now I'm too tired. I came to mumsnet because it's a credible site with credible readers and I hoped it would help the plight of several parents in Berkshire who have been brave enough to raise their hands against a system that is powerful and unfamiliar with contest....an earlier post says that this happens everywhere. It actually doesn't matter if pupils are competing for the same school. This concern is that children are sitting for OPPOSING schools, so no rivalry is in play as I try to point out in my analogy to the cousins above in my previous post.

If this IS happening elsewhere as people are saying here then raise your hands! Don't allow it! If we don't challenge we don't improve or evolve.

OP posts:
poisonedbypen · 11/09/2014 22:44

And it's discussed on the 11 plus website every year without fail.

poisonedbypen · 11/09/2014 22:43

In Bucks the same 11plus test can be sat from now until next July. Fair? Probably not. Life isn't. In many areas children have been kept off sick so they can sit back up dates and hope to find out some questions. It's really not a matter of life & death.

Original poster
Lindy123 · 11/09/2014 22:38

yegodsandlittlefishes,

again don't quite understand your post? (see excerpt at bottom of page) "And no, both my children are in a super selective grammar"......And you're right it is not my call how they determine selection and that is not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to point out that information can be passed from one candidate to another in a two hour lapse between exams competing for different schools, which will enable them to have a competitive advantage.

Child one sits history GCSE at school x in the morning.....child one then goes home for a couple of hours and texts his cousin in another part of the country who's sitting his in the afternoon (they are not competing for a selective school) "Hey mate, make sure you cover Anne Boleyn cos she comes up loads." cousin replies..."Wicked mate, I'm doing my geography GCSE in the morning and yours is in the afternoon innit, so I'll text you the questions tomorrow...OK cuz nice one man! "Wicked man."

"And no, both my children are in a super selective grammar school and if they had not got places there, I would consider that they were not a good match for the school and not be at all interested in the child that 'pipped them to the post."

OP posts:
YeGodsAndLittleFishes · 11/09/2014 20:54

My point it, it is not your call, the decision of how the schools arrive at their selection process is not up to you. Also, sharing this 'news' with as many people as possible just before the test date is not how to clamp down on cheating it is a way to encourage it and plant the seed in desperate parents or children who might.

And no, both my children are in a super selective grammar school and if they had not got places there, I would consider that they were not a good match for the school and not be at all interested in the child that 'pipped them to the post'.

CatherineofMumbles · 11/09/2014 20:48

Have you shared this on the elevenplus exams website? Now there's a place for a thing like this to make people go into orbit Grin