ISEB pretests and Atom Learning

[Huggler]

I'm just wondering how accurate the Atom Pretests are and whether my son could hope to get through the first rounds for Eton / Harrow etc.

My son is late to the party and we are just preparing him for an exam in a couple of weeks. Some of the questions seem incredibly hard, that even my teacher friend could't get. It's only been a few days but my son has results ranging from SAS 110 (English, his least favourite) to 142 (Maths). with verbal and non verbal in between. I'd thought this was probably ok until I saw other threads about it and now I'm not so sure he is in with any sort of a chance.

Those with kids who have just done it, did they find it realistic practice, and is it really necessary to know all the detailed knowledge of grammatical terms which come up in the English test. This surprised me as I was always told that ISEB is specifically designed so that you can't swot for it.

Also how exactly does the age related adjustment work. If he does it a couple of months later, will the drop in marks be significant.

I'm a bit lost with this all so any advice gratefully received.

They’ve ‘all’ been swotting! I have one son who did it last year, another before, both claimed there was no grammar at all in the final exams (‘all’ that boring stuff about prepositions, wasted!!). I know boys who got into too schools with an average final score in the 120s, not 130s (beware: straight 140s/140s in Atom practice doesn’t necessarily translate into those same scores on the day). Schools look at an average for all 4 but will ‘note’ a particularly high score in, say, maths which your son looks set to get.
Just squeeze in as many more atom practices as you can.

Having the same problem here. DS is trying the ISEB tests on Atom and yesterday came across a lot of difficult grammar questions that he hasn't encountered before. Apparently they don't test beyond Year 5 curriculum, so I don't know whether to invest time teaching him this stuff.

If I re-did it I’d make sure they could tell the difference between adverbs, nouns, adjectives etc but I wouldn’t bother with the zillions of different types/names of prepositions & adverbs & nouns for example (please don’t sue me if whole exam’s on that though!)

My child is at a London prep and he doesn't seem to have been taught all the complicated grammar on the English section of Atom(he is well prepared in the other areas). Only one of his five schools uses the ISEB, and there are no questions like this in the other 4s available sample papers. I am unsure whether I will bother teaching him it all, and may just have to sacrifice his chances at 1 school.
Are you sure Eton/Harrow will ask this type of question? I would look at past papers to check.

as @DoMyBest says, he should know the basics (the CGP Year 6 Grammar and Punctuation workbook is excellent for revision and covers everything), Atom goes far beyond into details nobody needs to know for the ISEB.

Ah sorry: I thought we were talking about the initial, general, computerised presit exams (have they finished this year?). If the question’s about the next stage, the Eton & Harrow etc individual school exams, then I don’t know (I should because my eldest passed the Eton one but was super vague about what was in it. Definitely didn’t mention any grammar!)

My DS is sitting Iseb next week and his scores on Atom are erratic too… but I am not concerned because he sat for various state grammars without much prep and I know he came out in top 5 per cent there out of thousands. He also can sometimes score eg 140 in Maths and lower in others. But where he is supervised and trying he is consistently stanine 9 maths English and verbal and I think that is what matters. Non verbal is 8 or 9. It is really more a question of how they compare to others sitting the test. Stanine 9 in most and perhaps an 8 or two should be fine for Eton. Harrow I would expect slightly lower would be OK stanine wise

If you trawl these threads (or contact atom directly) they should give you an idea whether his scores are good enough. Maths obviously is. English currently isn’t. Or at least his 110 isn’t. However, I do remember my DS saying that atom tested a lot more than he was asked to do for the Iseb. He got into all of the top tier academic schools he applied to.

I also seem to remember that there was an option to state your preferred school (eg Westminster) and from there you could see if your child was on track?

Basically, from what you say your son is in with an excellent chance. I’d also say the schools look out for spikes. So, the maths will attract the top schools. He will prob get an interview - even if he gets a low English score. The interview will then probably probe his English. Good school report etc will also count on the day of course!

Atom English very difficult for year 6 , the grammar they test is way beyond for iseb pretest. Do the real pre test that difficult? Math mock question always get repeated on atom , easily get over 140. English / vr/ nvr mock seems less repetitive