Can someone explain ISEB to me?

I am quite astounded that DCs are scoring in the high 130s/140s in the Atom tests. Our school did mock tests before half term and there were very few scores in any of the modules over 125.....and this is at a selective prep which will typically send a third of the cohort to London super selective. I am hoping we don’t just have a really underperforming year group! .... or perhaps people will spend the entire half term practicing the tests every day and we all go up 10 points..... Funnily enough when I had DCs do ISEB previously, there was no ATOM learning so they all went in blissfully unaware of how bad they were doing but as no one had any advantages they all scored the same relatively - which was the whole point of it being a tutor proof system. Now we have something like ATOM the test is no longer “tutor proof” and we are all getting sucked into doing more preparation to stay with the pack. It’s really quite exhausting...

warm glad to get it over and done with.
Is your child sitting soon?

We came from SE London and there were lots of other children. So it was an extremely early start (too early for us all) and some people who could afford to got hotels.

Someone in the line had to get up for 4.15am to make it to the centre. I also heard from this person that some people were lining up since 6.45 am.

Congratulations to all children going through this process.

We did hear some people are doing it next week and at the end of October due to covid.

Hope the Kent exam wasn’t too onerous for those who sat it yesterday, and wishing all those doing it next Saturday all the best, to your DC

Thank you Happysummer for the tip off about the ATOM webinar!

Thank you, @Stircrazyschoolmum. That would be a dream!

@goodymoody Thank you, and best of luck to your DS as well! It's reassuring to know we are not the only ones suffering from the nerves and the worry... even if I wish he didn't have to.

stircrazy I do too, I wish this process was either easier or did not exist!

grammarhopeful the very best of luck!

My son is sitting for Kent on Saturday, very early.

He couldn't eat this morning and didn't want to go to school. I may keep him off tomorrow to try calm the nerves.

Just going to try reassure him and I may take him out of school tomorrow.

@Oceane11Plus

Yes, I understand. DS isn't in huge favour of computer-based testing either. I am though, as this allows me to finally stop having to do "race the test" with him, which I am quite tired off by now . This was a good motivational tool for him earlier on and it stuck. Silver linings of this dreadful pandemic, I guess, that I have the opportunity to do so...

We are going to try for a few of the independents here in SW London, who now switched over to ISEB Pre-test, so whether he likes it or not, he needs to get used it.

He hasn't quite mastered moving on from the time-consuming questions yet He likes to do things sequentially and is a bit of perfectionist, so often panicks when he realises that he wasted too much time. I am just hoping he'll wing it on the day of the paper tests; the first is this Friday! (xx).

@GrammarHopeful What I find very frustrating with this format change is that we did work on some strategies with written maths papers such as not wasting time on a question and come back to it later, re-read everything at the end if she has spare time, and we had managed to iron out most careless mistakes.
I feel like we're back to square one now. She rushes through the questions in the online mocks as she is worried about time but always ends up with 10-15mn spare time that is totally useless! When we go through her mistakes together, I hide the answers and explanations and make make her re-do the questions and 9 times out of 10 she finds the right answer. The maths is not that difficult, it is the format which is causing an issue for her.

She’s still getting good scores in English and VR but maths is much more volatile; she rushes as she is worried to be short of time and seems to be making so many careless mistakes as a result, I despair

Careless mistakes and answering not quite the same question as was asked (because it's similar, but different from a problem he's aced before) is the bane of my life. I feel for you and all of our children!

@Oceane11plus I understand your concerns about the speed at which the children click the answers, and the consequences of a wrong answer, as the children cannot go back. Your DS scores look promising, which is a good sign, its still early days with a new system to wrap our heads around and gain faith in.

@EnolanotAlone Just to be clear DD is not excelling on Atom, far from that! She got two full scores in her two better subjects but these were a one off and part of me thinks it might have been caused by a bug in the system. She’s still getting good scores in English and VR but maths is much more volatile; she rushes as she is worried to be short of time and seems to be making so many careless mistakes as a result, I despair I wonder if the screen makes it worse (on paper she can highlight the important words and make sure she doesn’t miss anything in the question). We still have one month before the exam but this doesn’t make me very hopeful.

@GrammarHopeful @Oceane11plus your children are excelling on Atom, outstanding scores and consistency. My DS will sit iseb mocks this weekend, just trying to understand if the top scores are achieveable.

ATOM are doing a free webinar on ISEB Pre-test on 15th Oct 5.30pm..

Sign up to take part zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qccdcuScQvuuxkXdnkuCjw

as any DD or DS achieved top score on an ATom mock?

@EnolanotAlone

My DS's last four maths mock tests results were 137, 138, 140 and 142. 138 and 142 were on ISEB Pre-test (adaptive), the other two were on Atom's Kent and Bucks tests.

Maths's his strongest subject, which he very much enjoys. English is in low 120s, VR is around 130 mark, NVR is 117-118 (he has a couple of areas of difficulty due to the way his brain works [he has HFA, i.e. not neuro-typical]).

We only had Atom for a couple of weeks (he's been off sick, so had time to do mocks during this time).

We started preparing for 11+ in the earnest at home in May. Mostly using past papers from a variety of schools across the country. Before that, he's been attending a weekly group tutoring session locally for about year.

@2morasmum

The Common Entrance is a full written examination, done under exam conditions. DD sat 1 English comprehension, 1 English writing, 1 Mathematics and 1 Science paper. So 4 separate exams. I think they were staggered over 2 days, could have been 3 - January is a blur now! She sat them at her state primary school. The results went to her first choice school.

She did not have to do a VR/NVR paper, but I do recall that was part of the CEM-Select test done during the assessment days. I think these types of papers are more commonly done for Grammar schools those doing the 11+ vs those who do the Common Entrance.

Hope this helps!

My DD did this last year. She didn't do the ISEB pre-test but attended assessment days where she sat the CEM-Select amongst other things at each school. It was an adaptive test. Last step was to sit the common entrance in January - this was written papers though.

@EnolanotAlone I just went to check and DD got a score of 142 twice (full marks), in English (ISEB mock) and VR (consortium). However I am pretty convinced it was due to a “bug” in the algorithm as subsequent scores have been noticeably lower. As written above we’re not aiming for 140+, not least due to the amount of careless mistakes DD makes by answering too quickly and not reading the questions properly. At this stage a mean score of 130 by the exam would sound like a good outcome for us.

Has any DD or DS achieved top score on an ATom mock? Esp with it being adaptive... are we aiming to a psueduo CAt of 141? Or somethign different?

@Stircrazyschoolmum Unfortunately I agree with you. Even if the Atom website states that an Atom score of 115-120+ should be enough for UK's most academic schools, I can't help thinking that we should probably be aiming for a mean Atom score of at least 130.

It would be interesting to get the feedback from parents of boys who've sat the ISEB pre test in previous years and were called to the next stage, what scores they were getting on Atom and which schools they were subsequently offered (knowing that's it's probably tougher for boys as there seems to be a greater choice of very selective girls' schools compared to boys). Unfortunately Atom did not exist when my son sat this pre test so I have no reference.

@uk2020 I have to agree with you. Who would have guessed Atom, a relatively new start up operation would be the lead tutoring platform for Yr 6 exams... I dearly wish we knew about it during March lockdown and limited schooling.

I feel the system will change next year. The mess is giving advantages to kids who have spent enough time on Atom.

@Happysummer thank you for your reassurance on Atom vs ISEB, it was a well honed cautious instinct with feeling a liitle out of control in this years 11+ gig. Our test is next month and only early days into Atom.

Hope your daughter found the exam process more relaxing with the familiarity - may you get the offers you are seeking in this process.