Help! DS sitting entrance exam now and he didn't finish one of the tests.

[trumpisaflump]

My DS is 10 and is currently sitting a cognitive ability test for entrance to a new school after the summer holidays. It lasts all morning and he gets out for breaks every hour. He's been doing lots of extra work since March last year and recently he's been doing past papers of CAT tests for his stage. His test is online at home and he's just come out of the spatial reasoning test and said he didn't finish one of them. The first part had 16 questions and he finished this but the second part had 24 questions and he thinks he only did around 19.
Can someone please talk me down. Is this awful? I'm putting a brave face on for him and telling him it's fine but would really appreciate a teacher's view on this.
Thanks

OP there is literally no benefit in stressing about it. You have no idea how they set the test. Some schools set straight forward tests which a bright student will score highly on. Others set some straight forward tests and some very difficult tests to establish scholarship candidates. On a very difficult test most students will score below 40%. A student who carefully answered 19 questions out of 24 might be in the top 5% of candidtates. We simply don't know.

OK I'll chill out 😂 I think it might be similar to the 11 plus but I really don't know as we're in Scotland so don't usually use these tests. I think he's got in a little better in the next test he's taken so I'll just need to see what happens.

19/24 would actually be a good score on most 11+ style tests. Timing is tricky but carefully answering 80% can be much better than racing through them all with a huge number wrong. It's so hard not to stress about these things!

Thanks for that @HamAndButterSandwich. He's on the last one now so we can't do any more now. I'll enjoy some wine tonight 😂

My daughter only did about 1/3 of question on a second stage maths 11+ - she only failed by 7 marks........

Thanks @Toomanycats99. Interesting to know. Hope all is well now with your DD.

Yes thanks @trumpisaflump

She got into a partially selective school and is doing really well.

I think there are so many bright children they have to set the questions very hard to be able to differentiate them as places are granted in descending score order!

Its designed for all levels of ability. The fact he got to 19 is very good. Don't stress. Better to get 15 correct than do all of them and only get 6 right.

DD missed out the whole last page of her 11+ (so around 8 questions), and she still got a place at the grammar school that it was for. Really don't worry about it, 19/24 is a very good mark!

Thanks. He seemed to do much better in the rest of the assessment so I'm hoping he'll get a school place 🤞

DD took 11+ for a local private school and came out saying exactly the same - finished NVR but did not finish VR. "Never mind Darling" I said, mentally crossing it off the list...

She got an academic scholarship. You just can't tell.

NB this was not in the hyper-competitive London market.

Really @clarexbp? That's amazing! Well we're in Scotland so not in competitive London either. I just wish we knew one way or the other. The waiting is torture!

Yes, @trumpisaflump. It was an adaptive test, and apparently you can not finish those and still score very high if most of your answers are correct. Do you know what test your DS was sitting? If it was ISEB (as is very common), it was adaptive too.

@clarexbp I don't really know what test it was. It was online and before I left the room DS was using I saw 'CAT4 level C'. It included verbal reasoning, non verbal reasoning and spatial reasoning. It's all new to me!

Oh that's good news @trumpisaflump - if it was CAT4 online it was defo adaptive. DD does those at school every year, never finishes any of them, and still gets very high scores. They reward accuracy far more than speed which is a very good thing with my child

Oh actually, now I'm doubting that CAT4 is adaptive... But the fact remains that slowcoach DD never finishes them and still manages to score highly.

My DS got offered a place on Friday! So he obviously got on fine with the exam. Thanks to all those that replied.

That is great news, congratulations to him. Ds did something similar on one of his sub tests. He still did really well overall and a decent score on the subtest. I think he probably got most of the ones he answered correct. Hope your ds enjoys his new school, my ds can't wait to go now!

Congratulations!

Thanks. After the last year we've all had I don't think we could have taken any more bad news! Gave us the lift we needed. Thanks again

DS1 did 11+ in Sept 16. He came out in tears thinking he had failed and just wasn't good enough. I think he found the test quite a bit harder than the example papers he had done. He got his grammar school place is YR 10 now and his grades are well above average for the school. You really can't tell how well he has done and will just have to wait patiently for the results which in all honesty may be better than you expect.

Oops sorry that was a bit late. Will teach me to rtft. Congratulations to your DC.

Ahh, that's great news! Thanks for coming back to let us know.