BEBRAS

[PenceyPrep]

DD did the BEBRAS Junior competition earlier this month and has just logged in and found out that she got full marks - 200/200.

This is not a stealth boast - clearly she has done well, but I feel that I need to manage her expectations. She is beside herself with excitement and thinks that this means she is likely to be in the top 60 and will get invited to the finals in Oxford.

I'm probably a terrible parent for thinking this, but I just don't think she's that likely to be in the top 60 of the tens of thousands who sit this. She's a smart girl - particularly good at maths - but I can't help but think they must have made it easier this year and that thousands will have got full marks and they'll somehow pick a fraction of them, and I'll be mopping up the tears.

I've googled but can't find anything to indicate what sort of mark you need to get to the final or whether the marks were particularly high this year.

Can anyone cast any light?

I was saying maybe it was the step up into 12-14 level but she won Best In School last year so feels a bit more pressure this year. I'll let her know tomorrow that she wasn't the only one who did well last year who found it tough, as I think she was a bit put out. Will be interesting to see how the results stack up anyway!

How did they do this year? DD got 163 (inters) and is disgruntled.

I read on Facebook highest for inter level is 166

A big dip from previous year, any idea of the top 10% mark?

Saw this on Facebook

screenshot attached

I m not sure if they know National level scores or if this is their school top result

Those are just top results for that school

@PenceyPrep girl I know has asked school for her results but has not been allowed to have them! She said they all had new passwords on a sheet given to them on the day, which were then taken away and she can't access her account to find out herself. She was so excited yesterday and now has to wait a week as they only do computer science every other week (which she is also annoyed about). I'll update when she finds out - hopefully before next week!

School will announce anyway by Friday right
so children should know

I suppose from a distance the format of this strikes me as a bit odd.

The 'Bebras challenge' (BC) stage seems to filter out many kids who are really enthusiastic about coding/maybe have a lot of experience in and are good at it, but who maybe don't have the smarts or quickness to get a really high score in a challenge.

But the BC also lets through a lot of kids with good smarts but who don't know the first thing about coding so who've got no hope of doing at all well in the 'OUCC'.

Or am I missing something?

@IndeCandidate her school don't announce at all, so she will likely have to wait for her lesson to find out. It's sadly not a school that celebrates the successes like others I see in the paper!

I can understand . Ours forget to even tell

@puffyisgood the school should have done some basic training on it with them before the test. Sadly some kids get more than others to practice depending on the teacher and time set aside for Computer Science during school. However, a bit like the CATs and MidYis, the basis is largely logic and maths, which allows for a slightly level playing field as long as the basics are in hand.

I agree .. our went in with no idea of what to expect n how to manage time

now there is no post test analysis to explain different ways to handle problems n solve

no help no guidance

I think there are some resources on the Bebras website - not sure if these are just past challenges or if there's an explanation too.

I do agree that Bebras seems to test more of an inate ability in 'computational thinking' whereas the OUCC challenge is pretty much impossible without block coding practice and experience. I don't think my DC has done any block coding in school - after qualifying for oUCc (twice now) the teacher just points them to the resources, but some turned up to do OUCC with no clue where to start!

I think what would be helpful is how to tackle questions which teachers can do
its not abt coming to answers as there is short way / long way / smart way

@IndeCandidate I think the children can log in and see which questions they got right or wrong together with an explanation. I don't know about the OU.

Mean scores and cutoffs are out. As we suspected, looks like inters was hard this year!

Is there a way to work out scores from this? Ie how many marks per question?

Got it - www.bebras.uk/

DS got 178 in seniors. Is this good?

Anyone else's DC get results this week?

Yes - DC got 188 but not heard if that takes them to the next round. There were 2 girls who got higher in her school (she got 3 wrong) and apparently 1 question was worded very oddly which she thinks everyone got wrong as even their teacher couldn't do it.

DD hasn't got her score yet. I'll be interested to see how she does - Y7 she got 200, then Y8 she got 186, then Y9, 160ish. Will the slide continue?

It's all different this year apparently - a new organiser. How did your kids get their scores - can they still login themselves or do they need to wait for their teacher to do it?

She's just checked - 220. We're wondering if it's easier in its new guise?

Annoyingly, the next round overlaps the intermediate maths olympiad and it would be tricky to prep for both. Maths is DD's one true love, so I suspect that will win out.