11 plus test - how does the scoring work?

[Paddingtonthebear]

In our area the “expected standard mark ” changes from year to year to year. I know it’s all standardised so the score we see is not the raw score, but I’m wondering how they determine what the cut off mark is? Does anyone know?

What area are you talking about specifically?

In our area they take all the applicants within the priority area and sort them by standardized score and then admit the top 180 kids.

In our area places are offered by catchment area and everyone that passes usually gets in, with a few out of area offers also made. What I am wondering about is how they determine where the cut off is for the pass mark (met require standard or did not). Say the cut off score for this year is 302, how do they decide that score?

I reckon it will be a numbers game. They'll make the pass mark reflect the number of kids the schools can fit. Otherwise in a year where the quality of candidates is poor, the schools will be half empty!

Like the pp said, it is probably done by the top scorers that they can admit. It depends on the cohort and how well everyone does. Some years will be higher or lower, but you can get a rough idea by looking at the past years.

Bear in mind that the current y6, 7, 8 and 9 have quite high birth rates nationally, so probably the mark will be higher than a few years previously.

Thanks. I was wondering if it was based around the number of places available.

Someone thought the test may have been easier this year if the pass score was lower than previous years. But I wondered whether it may have been lower this year because the test was harder. There were more questions added than previous years which no one was expecting. I wonder if many actually finished all the papers. Hard to know I guess with all the standardisation and other factors that come into play.

It will be a statistical exercise, much the same as for gcse grade boundaries.

In our area around 2000 are deemed 'selective' and there are 800 grammar school places. So they set the selective score around the cutoff of what the top 2000 ish get.

For our area the required level is set to allow the top 25% of applicants to achieve it, it doesn’t change much year on year. If more apply to the school with the pass mark than places they raise the pass mark to cut off at the number of places. They place in catchment and passed first then either increase pass marks or go out of catchment

That makes sense