Unexpectedly Low MidYis Scores

[Charliesunnysky10]

My Y10 daughter got her MidYis scores back and where the teachers were agreeing with her aspirational grades of 8's and 9's at GCSE, she scored mostly 6's in this test sat nearly 3 years ago. Yet she gets top marks in all the exams over the last 3 years and is very upset, convinced she won't achieve any 9's now. Her friends who are all in lower sets and get lower marks got mostly 7's and she can't understand why all the commitment and good performance over years 7, 8 & 9 hasn't been taken into account. School just say it's a snapshot and a baseline guide. Yet she'll be reminded of it as the scores appear on each report. I asked her if she can use it as motivation to show how inaccurate MIdYis is. But she's stopped working now, saying she feels stupid and demotivated. I'm unhappy that school have used this Y7 test score to effectively derail her progress - as if these GCSE years aren't challenging enough. I can't change it but I really want to limit the damage it's doing. No matter how much I tell her she's doing great and to ignore the MidYis scores she now believes she won't get to her goal, because the scores tell her she's not clever enough.

What scores did she get. Have you got the breakdown of vocab, maths, non verbal, skills and final score? I spend a lot of time looking at these. To be honest, low midyis score is not unusual because usually year 7 do them early on and they are rabbits in headlights so usually process more slowly. Midyis are a VERY blunt instrument and really how can they indicate how someone can do in Biology or Music or Art. I find them useful to spot potential dyslexics. If you want to give me the scores, I can give you some thoughts.

Why are they giving a yr 10 their old midyis scores when they should be doing their yelis at year 10 anyway

@KathieFerrars Thank you so much. Sorry for the delay replying. I was comforting her but she's inconsolable, she's never scored this low in any tests and just wants them to average her last 3 end of year tests in each subject which will give her all 8's and 9's. I only have the subject breakdown unfortunately but I could ask for the full analysis. She just wants a realistic baseline like an 8 - she says a 6 to a 9 is a huge jump, but yet got 98% in the maths test last week which was joint highest in Y10. Interesting you mention dyslexia diagnosis. She had to go for an assessment right after this test on Y7, as they thought she might have mild dyslexia but when they completed the testing found she was not at all dyslexic.

@emanonsah Thanks. I have heard of those. I'll find out about it x

My daughter has messaged the teacher who deals with this and asked her to use the average of her past 3 years end of year subject tests to form an accurate baseline score because while the teacher says it's just a baseline not a ceiling, psychologically, it's very much a ceiling to my daughter as it's a huge jump from a grade 6 to a 9. But if her baseline is an 8, it keeps her on track like she was before these results came out yesterday.

I don't know if this can be done but it's much fairer and accurate.

Most schools do not do Yellis if they have paid for midyis in year7–9.

Ask her school if she can see the chances graphs- they are really illuminating.

The score is a very blunt tool, personally I wouldn’t give it to a pupil without using the chances graphs. These graphs effectively show what her chances of getting each grade are.

So if the score is ‘6’ perhaps 50percent do get a 6, but seeing the percentages for how many with that score go on to get 7, 8, 9s (and seeing that it isn’t zero!) can be motivating.

More about how it works and chances graphs here:

www.cem.org/blog/how-we-make-predictions