Common Entrance marking

[HarrietT43]

Morning MN. Could someone explain Common Entrance 13+ marking to me? I know there are often three papers with an additional scholarship paper. Could you DD/DS score 90% on paper 1, and would this be better than 60% on paper 2? Where does CASE fit in? TIA.

Bumping

Shame you haven't got an answer on this as I'd love to know too!

https://www.iseb.co.uk/assessments/common-entrance/at-13-for-schools/
13+ Papers in certain subjects have two or three levels.
The prep school will choose which level to enter the children for. Sometimes the papers are marked internally by the prep school and the results sent and some are sent directly to the senior school for marking ( seems to happen less and less). There is a suggested mark scheme that is followed in both cases.
The most academic children will take the most challenging papers, so for example Maths Set 1 will take Higher, most will take Core and the weaker students will take Foundation. The Mental Maths paper is the same for all. Senior schools are aware of the papers each child has taken.
CASE are scholarship papers. Some schools use the ISEB papers and some use their own. Scholarship papers are usually taken earlier in the year and pupils who sit for an academic scholarship can then be exempted from 13+ by some schools.

Most Y9 places these days have already been offered in Year 6 these days so the 13+ papers are often for confirming suitable progress has been made and for setting purposes.

Thank you - my yr 5 has been told by prep head that she in on course for the level 2 papers and predicted (as much as they can at this point for 13+) A for maths, B for English and B/C other subjects. What 'level' of school would this suggest would be a good place to start applying/looking? On what you have said I would have thought highly selective would be out so more somewhere in the middle?

Your Head or Academic lead should be able to guide you to consider some options they feel will fit your child's profile. Your prep school will have a stable of schools they feed to every year and will know exactly what they are looking for and what child would thrive there.
Does your prep school do annual CAT testing? This is probably the best indicator of success at selective school entry. (I have never heard of 'predicted' grades at 13+ being discussed as early as Y5)
Start with what you want as you are clearly looking for Y9 entry so: Single/Coed, Day/Flexible/Boarding, strong sport/music/academics, (tbh most will offer a high level of all three but some are specialists), Pastoral Care/ IB vs 'A'Levels etc,etc,etc.
As I mentioned above, the key entry point these days for many schools is the Y6 Pre-test which is usually a combination for some kind of Reasoning test, some English and Maths and an interview.

Thank you. Her CAT4 average is 123 this year. We were given this plus the comments I make above.

... She also attained A/B in maths/English and has been consistent which could be where the comments stemmed from. It's a fairly academic prep that stops at yr8 and has successes across a range of schools. Her other subjects are not as strong except Geography which she enjoys. I agree things can change but trying to get into a headspace of what that could translate into if the school projection is accurate.

I’ve just seen a cohort of kids go through CE, and if anything I am more confused. They appeared to get an overall mark for CE, but this didn’t depend on what level of paper they were doing. For example you could score A on a foundation Math paper, and that seems numerically equivalent to a A on an upper tier paper when they aggregate scores. Additionally some destination schools produce their own mark schemes and these seem to feed into different grades? Madness. A very over complicated system.

Ah, so what I'm asking is perhaps the impossible question!

13+ results can't be equated with national qualifications. There's is little consistency and no interest for moderation between schools as it serves no purpose. From my experience historically, selective schools mark to their own criteria so the exact same paper could score a B/Cfrom a highly selective school and an A from a 'less' selective school. Basically they make it up as they go along. When you hear that little Timmy got an A in Maths there is no way of telling whether that was a Foundation or Higher level paper or whether it was marked by a highly academic school or one with a wider 'footprint'. In recent years, more senior schools ask for the prep school to mark the papers themselves and just send the results. Your daughters CAT score of 123 indicates a strong academic potential so ,dependent on her character and motivation, you could look at schools with competitive entry requirements.

Thank you. Very helpful :-)