Kent 11+ 2023

[MoggyMittens23]

Is anyone else here from Kent and their child sitting the Kent test this September? thought it might be good to have a support thread going. If there already is one could someone point me in the right direction? Thanks

Two reasons - it's the same paper on the Thursday as the Saturday, and as far as I know (but I'm happy to be corrected) it is the paper that children would sit if a space became available in a school, but they hadn't taken the 11+ (eg when the schools gave Ukrainian children spaces, or children moving from OOC after the test deadlines), so any discussion is unfair - or rather could give an unfair advantage.

In some areas the same paper is used right up to the end of the school year.

@NotAKangaroo I guess even if they did tell a few questions to the saturday child, there is a remarkable difference of marks between IC and OOC .And kids can’t tell the whole paper word by word, they are just 10 year old. I guess the most benefit would be to children who go to tuition centres.they collect so much information from children who sat on the thursday test and pass it on the children who sit on the saturday test.There is a loop hole somewhere in this system.Which should be rectified.

I know children who are inside catchment that have taken tests on Saturday. For example if they go to a school in East Sussex but live in Kent they would certainly be at an advantage.

Gosh, I'm very glad to have found this thread. The wait feels like it is going to be agonizing. We are new to all of this and Kent so really not sure what to expect. My DD took it on Saturday and I'm really worried. She thought it was okay but she has since realized she has at least 10 incorrect answers...most worrying in the English and the reasoning bit. It's really hard to support her although I keep telling her it doesn't matter. It didn't help that her tutor told her 'everyone keeps saying how easy it was!'

Is anyone else's child in a similar position? and by pretty well does that mean they felt it went perfectly or that it was doable? Guess i'm looking for some reassurance.

My DD felt the same.She missed some questions in the English and non verbal, but like someone else said they do only remember the bits they found hard or missed. We live in Folkestone so she also took the Shepway test on Saturday, which she found easier and she only needs to pass the Kent or Shepway test to be suitable for the Folkestone Grammar but I am aware it is more competitive in other areas of Kent.

@Hantsmum123 we are in the similar situation.my DD was getting 80-90% in the mocks and she was super fast still she struggled with some questions in nvr and ran short of time.I guess everyone on this thread struggled little bit with reasoning.As reasoning has many questions there is a good leverage to pass as compared to english and maths.I know some kids are just boosting how easy the paper was .I don’t know what material did they study as my DD did bond ,cgp and Gl papers and 8+ mocks (all passed with flying colours).It’s very upsetting for the child.But as the other mums gave me reassurance if most of the majority found NVR hard they make a standardised cohort score.Also your DC will get a few extra marks if younger in age (month wise).

Thank you. That is reassuring. Mine struggled more with the English and lost marks there- how did yours find this and the maths

All the papers will be standardised so younger children will (probably) need lower raw scores to achieve the same standardised score & if everyone found it hard that is covered by the standardisation.

Maths and english were better but reasoning was the worst .As there were new topics specially in NVR.you can take a look at the raw scores from 2019 and you can get a good idea on how much score you need.It’s from 2019 buts its nice to get an idea.https://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/viewtopic.php?t=59397

My DS scored well in the GL mock practice papers over the summer. But found the Kent test comprehension tough and had to guess a few of the new reasoning questions.

What do you mean there a difference in marks between IC and OOC? Are you saying that they are marked differently and one is given preference over the other?

There will be no difference in marking. OOC sutters probably tend to score more highly because they are choosing to sit the rest as they consider it likely that they will pass. Even though it's opt in in Kent, I presume most sit it?

They are not marked differently but the mark you need is significantly different if you are in catchment or out of catchment for some schools.

However say you want Dartford Grammar for Boys. In area/ catchment would be those living in the Dartford area not even Kent and paying council tax to Dartford Borough. They take 90 boys from in area and 90 from out of area. It's a sought after school so naturally there are a lot more boys from out of area applying. In Bexley after the top 180 allocation is based on distance not score. For DGSB allocation is based on score. So for 2022 in area cut off score for entry to DGSB was 384 out of area was 406.

@historyrepeatz you have explained it perfectly.

Does someone know how much marks are needed to pass (raw score out of 60 ) reasoning section.Any experienced mums here as It’s my first DC.thanks

@enigmaticc It's my first DC to go through the test this year too so I understand how you're feeling, but no one can tell you the answer to this as it changes every year depending on how the whole cohort has scored.

I'm not even sure it was out of 60, did your child tell you it was? Sometimes it's out of 80 I think.

Anyway, I mean this kindly, try not to think about it! Honestly I am just trying to follow my own advice on this and stay distracted. We can't second guess this. Just try to forget about it until results day :-)

@CautiousOptimist thanks for the advice.The waiting part seems so long.I wish they would give the result earlier.

@enigmaticc Oh I know! But knowing the answer to your question wouldn't help anyway really, we can't know how many they got right until results day.
The link to a thread on raw scores and standardised scores you posted yourself a while ago is probably the best answer you could get to your question for what it's worth. Gives an idea. But that was a few years ago, and things could well be different this year if the cohort as a whole scored higher than usual.

how’s the morale of kids going?my DD is extremely anxious and tearful.

Aw that's awful. Is she wanting to go to a particular school or worried about being separated from friends? When I did it decades ago I was worried about failing due to rumours about bullying in the places I could end up rather than not being selective.

DS doesn't seem to be thinking about it. We did discuss a lot beforehand that he's not to worry about passing or failing. It probably also helps that he doesn't have a particular school that he wants to go to and knows that his friends will be going in different directions so they aren't all going to one particular school which he may not get.

I just want to know so that I can narrow down the schools we are looking at one way or another and get the application over with!

Oh dear I'm sorry, it's a long time to wait feeling like that :-(
She'll probably have passed, but if not do you have good options of non-grammars you could talk to her about to ease her anxiety?
My son is keen to know, but OK really. I reckon I think about it more often than he does!

@CautiousOptimist we moved all the way from another city in hampshire to Ashford just for grammar schools.She worked really hard about 3 + years and passed all 8 different mock tests. She does have a shepway test option as that went really well.But she has her heart set in Highworth grammar school.Her reasoning section didn’t went as well as expected .we almost covered quite a few publishers like bond and cgp.I really didn’t know what happened as she was taking between 85-90% on the online tests as well.Thank for your support and kind words

This is exactly why this is a bad idea. I'm sorry, but putting a this pressure on a 10 year old is awful for them. A grammar school really isn't some kind of golden ticket.

@enigmaticc It sounds almost certain she'll pass, even if not with quite as high a mark as you expected. I wouldn't worry.
I'm sorry if this sounds like a personal attack, but this is exactly why I despise the grammar school system and think the whole thing needs reform! Such a lot of pressure on ten year olds and it doesn't need to be that way.