NFER scores - 'superselective' grammar school material?

[jgjgjg]

This is going to come across as a massive stealth boast, so I apologise in advance!

DS is at an independent primary school, in Yr 2. He got NFER standardized scores of 130 in both reading and maths, and 114 for spelling.

According to the NFER website that puts him on the 98th percentile for reading and msths and the 82nd percentile for spelling.

Now I get obviously that those are very good scores. So my question is, if he continued the same way through the rest of primary school (and I know that's a very big assumption), would it be realistic to look at a place at the 'super selective' grammers in Sutton? Or a scholarship at Whitgift/Trinity?

We have been told that you need around 130 for the Sutton Grammars, so I would say it is looking promising or at least the right ball park. Do not know about scholarships though and that may depend on how he does at verbal/non verbal reasoning which I understand the indies possibly place more emphasis on. However there is no reason why those scores would not be at a very similar level.

My DS3 was in the 130s in the NFER CATs in Y5, but only managed 111 in the 11+, which wasn't enough for the super selective. It's a good indication, though, that it's worth a try. My DS3 wasn't tutored, we just did a few practice papers at home starting 2 months before the 11+.

Ditto Ellen, NFER scores were much much higher than those achieved in gs test. Our primary says you need at least 130 in each for super selective nearby. Mind you this ssems like his raw/base score without practice so he is likely to get higher scores in later years with a bit of practice. Sound like he is doing well so you should be proud!

This is an interesting thread as we are currently receiving guidance from our school which has a lot of experience in putting boys through the superselective tests.

There is a very important distinction between the NFER CAT tests which test cognitive ability and the NFER progress in literacy, Maths and Reading tests which are perhaps more a test of how well you have been taught and how easy it is for you to learn these particular curriculum subjects.

Most people in this area do a lot of tuition for the VR/NVR so I suppose that could be why 130 does not always translate for the actual exam. The other possibility is that the NFER CAT test is not timed (or not as strictly timed), so you can get children who have very high ability doing really well, but when having to work at speed in the GS exams do less well as they do not finish. Some children have high cognitive ability (afterall 130 is gifted range) but a slower processing speed.

My understanding is the the Sutton schools are now moving away from VR/NVR and the Tiffin Boys is currently going through consultation and who knows may decide to go the way of Tiffin Girls in requiring literacy and Maths too.