Common Entrance Exam Mark

[Sk8r]

When a school says the pass mark is 60% for CE - is that 60% in each subject or 60% average or 60% for top x number of subjects?

it varies , you need to ask your prep school or the school itself.

I didn't think school entrance exams had a passmark. I thought the top x number is students got in. Or if they do have a passmark it didn't guarantee a place, basically because if they only have 50 places it doesn't matter if 100 children 'passed'

I agree that you need to ask the school for more info.

andmyunpopularopionis
CE is a qualifying, not a competitive exam. The candidate will hold a conditional offer, and if they meet the mark, they're in (bit like univerity offers).

Sk8r
You'll have to ask the school whether they need to see the mark in all papers (and your prep head what the school's reputation for handling 'near misses' is).

For us, DS needs to get at least 65% in all subjects.

When my DS did CE it was x% in each of the core subjects ie English Maths Science, then an average of x% across the other subjects. They now have changed it to x% in ALL subjects- which he would not have got!

We're only year 4 at the moment. But our prep school says that the summer exams are a good indication as to what they'll get in CE, ie if they score 65% in the summer exam in year 4 at that level they'll score around 65% in CE.

I just wondered if schools gave 65% as average or for each subject. No particular school in mind at the moment. Trying to work out what level to go for.

Sk8r - with the greatest respect to your school what they have told you about Yr4 results being indicative is absolute bolleux

My Ds at Yr4 was your classic lazy average joe bugger, and we seriously thought that he would not manage CE at all and started looking at non selective 11+ options. However prep school told us to keep the faith and eventually he grew up a little bit and Aced his CE across the board.

Yr 4 is way to early to predict. Most preps will start the dialogue in yr 5 and steer you away from schools they definitely think are unachievable, and might indicate some choices might be below what your DC is capable of IYSWIM.

YOU will already have some feeling as to whether super selective is for your DC, in the next rung down (academically) they are usually much of a muchness for CE purposes, then you get the effectively non-selective with low thresholds

Also for many schools there will be wriggle room if the prep school communicate properly with the senior school. We have a child going to a must do level 2 in everything school, place confirmed this week, but we negotiated his maths to level 1 and a lower pass mark on that too. The school in question isn't going to advertise it, but sort of thing happens more than you think. Good communication is vital between you as a parent, the prep school and the senior school.

agree, Year 4 bears no relation to Year 8 CE results.

I think your school is right - year 4 was when my DS started to motor - it's been bumpy - but for him year 4 was highly indicative to what he has achieved at CE

Year 4 at our school is only 2 yrs off CE (Yr 6) so how reflective would our DS recent exam results be in relation to his CE prospects? Have called a meeting with HM to discuss as DS says he has done terribly.

ISEB papers for Y6 are English and Maths only, aren't they? That looks more like a (competitive) 11+ than CE.

Is it really CE at 11? When are the conditional offers made (this is usually the key part?).

And what happens about the other subjects that are on the CE curriculum?

The exams your DS will have sat on year 4 are his school's own exams, they do not read over to any other schools' exams and so there is no way we can say whether they have any predictive value or not.

Maybe there's some confusion over terminology here

Common Entrance is 13+ taken to get into trad senior schools that start in Y9. It is a standardised test over many subjects

11+ tests to move into senior school at Y7 are not (as far as I know) a standardised thing- papers are set by each school. Grammar entry may be different

Scottie I would agree that if you are heading for 11+ exams and your DS is struggling at Y4 I would be asking questions about plan B, depending in the competitiveness of your senior school of choice

@homebythesea He is going into Yr 5 in Sept and CE is in Yr 6, he will be 12yrs old in Nov. We don't have 11+ so only CE for us for senior school applications. Thanks

Scottie I think that CE is the term usually given for the 13+ exams certainly that's my experience. 11+ exams (whatever the name given) are a totally different kettle of fish in terms of subject matter and format. I'm not sure there is yet a "common" set of exams for Y7 entry ie same papers sat by all candidates for all schools. My experience is that senior schools with Y7 entry will set their own papers making it harder to assess whether a particular child will be suitable because the papers will be quite different between a super selective and one that merely tests to set groups

You can take CE papers at 11+ and at 13+ although many private day schools with mainly 11+ entrance and mixed private/state school intake set their own papers. Many girls public schools e.g. St Swithun's in Winchester use CE for entrance at 11+ and 13+.

Uiler thanks for correcting me- I have learned something today!