What sort of %mark is the 'pass level' for a good independent secondary school?

[Cornflakemum]

I've had a look in past threads, but can't find any reference to this. I know our local independent grammar school only offers places to children who have 'passed' the entrance exam, but nobody seems to know what the 'pass' threshold is exactly!
My friend said he 'thought' it was about 60%/65% as an average across the papers - would this be about right?

(Obviously I know it will vary between different schools, but I just wanted to get a general 'feel' for what people knew...)

There should normally be a "floor" - i.e. a mark below which you cannot be admitted, but whether or not you "pass" will depend on the number of children applying and the number of places available.

Basically, teaching salaries are paid by fees, and classes usually have a "cap" on numbers that has been promised to parents. So if a school promises e.g. a Year Group made up of 2 classes of maximum 40 pupils, but then receives 50 eligible applications, it cannot simply take the worst performing 10 and open a third class without incurring the cost of an additional teaching salary.

Srely, if they have (say) 100 places and 1,000 applicants, they aren't going to say anyone with 65% can come. That might be 500 people.

They're going to sort the applicants (by height, or religion, or number of freckles, or exam results, or social diversity, or interview scoring, or in some other way) and take the 100 that by their criteria come top.

Piglet - yes - I can see what you mean, but I think I probably mean, as avocet says, the 'floor'.

I know, for example, that the school I referred to doesn't just take the 'top 100' in their entrance test/criteria - a couple of years ago they only took about 95 and rejected several candidates who did not meet the 'minimum academic requirement'?

I daresay people who don't get in can phone and ask, but I've just never heard it referred to!

I would think that 65% would be a ball park figure and academically selectives would be a good 20% higher. I would imagine a grammer's pass rate would be higher than 65% though.
Surely the more candidates sit the test the higher the pass rate as the number of places remain the same they simply raise the bar.

takeonboard - but that's what I mean about a floor. Our most local independent secondary doesn't fill all its places if they don't have enough candidates that meet the 'minimum' standard - it seems a bit weird, I agree, but I suppose it's their way of keeping it 'highly selective'.
One of my friends' son got a scholarship a few years back, and she said he was consistently getting 90% + in all his practice papers.

THe senior svhool will be able to say what their pass mark or minimum requirement is. It also depends on the type of school - in some schools if you are doing 11+ or 13+ CE then candidiates will be pre selected and will be required to get a certain average %, and most if not all those who have a conditional offer will get a place if they get to that mark. Others will do their own exam and just count down from the top to the 100th (or whatever number they take) so that the effective pass mark coudl be 99% if nearly alll those taking the exam are boffinsd in a particular year, whereas in another year 70% might be enough. In thre latter case you will never actually know what the "pass" mark was.

DCs indie has an intake of 150 in Year 7. No more, no less.

I'm guessing they compile a list of kids by ranking and make enough offers to fill the 150 places as opposed to setting a pass mark and leaving places unfilled if not enough kids past.