Essex 11+ 2012 - Anyone else doing it?

[piggywigwig]

I was wondering if there's any other MN'ers on the countdown to the 22nd September?
How's everyone feeling? How's everyone's DC's feeling? Does anyone want a hand-holding session, support and even a rant?
I'd love to hear from fellow Essex parents

[piggywigwig]

DD's ranked them in order of difficulty with 1 being the one she had least trouble with, 1st

1.VR

1. English
   
2. Maths

[ByTheSea]

Hope all the children did well and phew, glad it's over!

[ByTheSea]

DD found it all harder than the practices and was very tired at the end. She did complete it all though.

[letseatgrandma]

DS found the VR and Maths fine, but said the English was tricky-especially some of the vocabulary.

It always worries me when I hear other people found different things hard as it makes me wonder if DS didn't appreciate the 'hardness' of it?!!

Does anyone know when we should expect to get the email from the CSSE? Midnight on the Sunday/Monday? Or 7am? 9am?!

[letseatgrandma]

He did say the VR was time consuming though-he didn't get one question done (and had no time to check through) which he always has been able to in mocks.

[piggywigwig]

letseatgrandma
Try not to let it worry you, if DP's report their DC's experiences that are different to your DS'. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses - even those who are strong on English, may find an English paper hard as they may not be able to "tap into" the style/format of the text and get in the groove.

Also, you get the factor of the variation in levels, intensity and frequency of practice, technique and tutoring. So many imponderables

I'm not sure when we get the results either

[MrsBartlet]

I agree piggywigwig. Letseatgrandma, you should just ignore whatever you hear about others' experiences. I have been through the Essex 11+ with both my dc. DD found it terrible. She was crying afterwards saying that she had done badly (she hadn't) and DS thought it was fine. Like you, I worried that he just hadn't understood the complexity of the questions. Both were successful. It is a stressful experience for them and I think children just interpret that in different ways.

Good luck for the 15th - at least you don't have to wait until March like we did!

[letseatgrandma]

Thank you both! I'm glad it's all over, but I can't help but hear things others are saying about the test and wondering why DS is saying different things! He was consistently doing well in mocks/practise papers (85%+) and we're not going for a super selective, but still...!

I just hope the score we get on the day will be useful! It could be that we get a mark and a comment saying 'you may be successful' and then still have to wait until March before we know anything more!

[MrsBartlet]

Yes, you are right that there is no knowing whether it will be useful or not to have your ds's score in October - you may still have to play the waiting game.

However, if your ds has been getting 85%+ that sounds very hopeful - fingers-crossed for you!

[breward]

Emails are sent at 'Close of business' on the 15th, so after 5pm results should be in your inbox.

[piggywigwig]

How's everyone feeling? How are your DC's?

[letseatgrandma]

5pm!? I suspect that will be a long day!

I am feeling fine, but just want to get it over and done with now. We've been to visit some local secondary schools this week and I am trying to sell them to DS (and myself!) but I just want to KNOW something! I still reckon the results will be crap though ;) My SIL (who has a child sitting the test) told me that at least we'll get to know if they've passed or failed on the 15th, but I'm sure the head of DS's school said we wouldn't and would just get a score and some advice?!

DS is fine-appears to have completely forgotten about it and said it was fine.

How about you piggywigwig?

[piggywigwig]

DD has drawn a line underneath it all and moved on, lol! I don't think results' day is even on her radar, thank goodness and we certainly haven't spoken about it. The worry and stress is now all for the grown-ups

I'm not sure that 15th will bring us to any conclusions, either - far too many new factors in the mix, this year, that could have an effect. Ideally, I'd need to see a score about a certain point, to feel even the teensiest bit confident and I suspect that the reality for most of us, will be uncertainty and a longer wait for 1st March than in previous years.

The last week has been the s-l-o-w-e-s-t I've known for a while...I have no doubt the next two will be equally as long. It's terrible to wish your life away...but I know we all need to draw a line under it all and move on. The waves of nausea are terrible and I can't wait for a good night's sleep ....on the evening of 1st March 2013

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

DS1 couldn't sit on the 22nd, as he had a respiratory infection. That then developed into a streptococcal throat infection. He sat on the 1st at CRGS, but he is still ill with the strep, still not back at school (been off since 21st September (!) never been ill for this long.

We are worried that he will have dropped marks through ill health. If he gets in, it will be nothing short of a miracle, despite how clever he is.

He is working on lvl 6/7 work in Maths at school, yet says the Maths paper was the hardest of the three.

Just keeping our fingers crossed till the 15th.

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

Piggywigwig - that's exactly how DS1 rated the papers for difficulty! He found the Maths paper the hardest, the English OK but harder than his mocks, and the VR he said was easy.

It's the English he has always had issues with in practice, the Maths he usually finds simple.

[letseatgrandma]

Oh no Couthymow-that sounds stressful and what a time for your DS to be ill :( Are you going for the one of the Essex super selectives-I can't remember if we've 'spoken' before?

Only 10 days to go until we get some sort of result...

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

Yep, CRGS is the only viable Grammar option for us. KEGS is too far away, and because of the new catchment he wouldn't get in anyway.

Ten more days...

[letseatgrandma]

Eight days now-have no more nails left either!

It's getting a bit stressful now. I was pretty confident when he came out-he was happy and thought it went well, but as the days have gone on-I'm losing my nerve.

Our local alternative is so awful as well that if he doesn't pass, it's either that or a very long bus rise with a very early start :(

[IainC]

Just in case you didn't know....

The Colchester and Chelmsford GSs will be holding a meeting for "promising candidates" at each school about applying. These will be held once the GSs have had time to digest the full set of candidate results.

The meeting is "invite only" (quote CSSE) and I guess if you get one you know that you have a fighting chance of getting in and if you don't, you don't. Harsh but there you have it.

The results that come out on Monday 15th will have the raw scores, the standardised scores and a graph showing the cut-off standardised scores for each school over the last 4 years.

[letseatgrandma]

That's interesting, Iain. Do you know if the Southend schools will be doing similar things?

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

Thing is, the results and cut offs for the last 4 years aren't going to be much help for CRGS applicants due to the new catchment for Chelmsford.

Especially if your DS is borderline.

I am getting really nervous, due to DS1 still being ill for the alternate sitting, I think we will end up having to appeal on the basis of his illness. He only went back to school today!

I have spent half the morning reading the elevenplus forum.

Just really worried.

[letseatgrandma]

Thing is, the results and cut offs for the last 4 years aren't going to be much help for CRGS applicants due to the new catchment for Chelmsford. Especially if your DS is borderline.

This is exactly the same situation in Southend where they have (this year) extended the catchment hugely. I feel sick whenever I think about it. I'm pretty sure DS would have got in prior to the priority catchment being changed, but now I just don't know.

Our catchment school is really not good which doesn't help my state of panic-this is going to seem like a very long week :(

[IainC]

@letseatgrandma - I am not sure what the Southend schools are doing I'm afraid.

I think the catchment issues may even out a bit.....

... As Chelmsford has historically been the hardest to get into and generally considered the most accessible from all areas the effective easing of entrance criteria for locals by the introduction of a catchment area may mean DCs that in previous years may have had to look elsewhere can now stay local, whilst other higher scoring DCs may have to look elsewhere rather than Chelmsford when previously they would have got in...

All conjecture of course... will have to see what is said at the Promising candidate meetings.... hoping and praying that DD1 gets an invite.

Borderline cases, I agree, will be a complete nightmare.

[breward]

2 days to go until results. How are everyone's nerves holding out?

[letseatgrandma]

Nerves are rising here!

What time do we all obsessively start checking our emails in Monday? Actually, I checked mine this morning just in case the CSSE had a blip and decided to send them out early ;)