What ATOM test scores were you seeing 7 to 9 months out?

[Eesha]

Does anyone mind sharing scores for tests/ATOM for 11 plus entry? Id like to know whether at this stage, children were scoring in the 130 mark (with exams 7-9 months away. At this stage for schools like Henrietta Barnett or City, were your children acing the papers? I have been on the 11 plus forum and it feels as though its way too late to start anything now as the kids have been tutored for a year at least

My DS did his first Atom tests in November as mock exams at his prep school (feeder to the senior school). He’s usually near the top of the class and most or all of the boys get in to the senior school, so we weren’t really concerned. But he did not do well in the mocks. NVR was 98, other scores between 100 and 115, maths about 120. He was very upset and so we paid for the subscription.

He improved massively during the first week and was often getting 142 on maths after a month and 130+ in all the other tests except reading comprehension, which he found hard. The week before the test he had managed to get that up to 130+. The exams went well and he got an academic scholarship.

I thought it was a terrible testing system. Many of the reading comprehension passages contained errors of various kinds and seemed to be written by AI. The adaptive testing takes a lot of getting used to (he tended to rush to get to the end). But, from this one data point, you can improve massively even two months out!

We only started doing the practice tests after the end of the summer term as the material does start repeating after a while (mainly the comprehension passages). Our daughters were both 90-100 at first and then improved to 120+ by exam time (and both offered places at all schools applied to).

We were pretty confident that it was just that their exam technique was terrible and that they were actually capable though (why were you staring at this question for 5 minutes ?? And no, I dropped my pencil is not an acceptable excuse!).

I agree with @namezchangez though that a lot of the questions are poor quality and don't seem to curated well at all. The format is still the most similar to the 1st round exams though.

That's really helpful @Babydoc5 @namezchangez , we are working our way through the learning section but have tried just the one test which came up in the learning section itself and got 100. Errors were things which hadn't been taught yet. Should I be buying exam papers on top of this?

You definitely have plenty of time! Atom is a good tool but the algo is noticeably dubious when it comes to SAS scores (ie you could score 130 one day, 110 the next day with the same number of questions answered wrongly in the same order!). So don’t rely on this completely. At this point in time my kids were mainly doing the “islands” and we slowly introduce the tests over the Easter holiday. IMO Exam papers plus are very good (we used them) but the level is harder than what is asked during the exams, even for the most competitive schools. And remember there are not only geniuses who get in! Plenty of normal smart kids who prepared well and consistently!
Most of these schools also publish past papers online (City, NLCS, Latymer Upper, St Paul s etc) which are useful and give you a good idea of the level expected.

We cancelled Atom right about this time and I would say the scores are quite irrelevant. My child was scoring 110 and don’t think it ever went above that. So much time spent giving feedback on the errors we came across it got to a point where I decided it was absolutely not worth it.

If you’re targeting grammar schools like HBS I would just do a monthly in person mock in the build up to the summer and then from July I would go for the weekly mock exams at a centre like 11Plus in Harrow. They give you targeted feedback for each area of improvement.
At home use EPP tests as practice.

I wouldn't overthink Atom scores. As others have said they are unreliable. On the English side, a lot of the questions are poorly worded and ambiguous. On the Maths side, if you get a few right, the algorithm sometimes increases the difficulty to far beyond 11+ level (we've had GCSE level questions randomly thrown in). And the test would quite frequently time out too soon which obviously affects the score. I felt it was dodgy that however well or badly DD did on a test, she would always be just on the tracker line for her target school - not low enough to give up, and not high enough to make you feel confident. I felt like the aim of the scoring was to keep you as a customer and sell you more add ons, rather than to accurately record how your child is doing.

I found Atom was useful for practising exam technique and timing (notwithstanding the test timing out issue!) and the islands were good, but I think if you worry about the scores and the tracker it causes unnecessary stress.

Totally agree with everyone saying not to stress the Atom scores, the algorithm really is all over the place! We found it helpful just for getting used to exam timing but not much else honestly.
For actual content and practice at home, have a look at YoungLearning alongside your EPP papers. It covers all four subjects with loads of questions and proper mock exams but costs a fraction of what Atom charges. Really good value if you want something thorough without spending a fortune. And you definitely have plenty of time, our kids were nowhere near ready at this point!

EPP is good but definitely pitched above the level of the exams themselves (we considered this a good thing) and works out more expensive than Atom overall.

In person mocks are great but also a great way at cranking up your stress levels so approach with some caution.

Remember that the computerised test is just the first round and none of the online options prepare well for the 2nd round English/Maths papers - you'll need past papers for this.

The scores go all over the place. I don’t think it’s that helpful. It’s good to identify a weakness but my child was never consistent in the scores.

At one point I was seriously worried however we quit it and used the cpg books in the end. Not sure why the scores can vary so many points …..

If you getting low scores I’d take it with a pinch of salt - it’s like different children taking the test - so wildly different it’s crazy defo not worth £70 a month