How well do students perform on online eleven plus test papers?
This is a question, which many parents have asked us to answer.
Firstly I think any parent knows that every child learns in a different way, but there are some similarities or patterns in this learning which this blog uncovers and will hopefully help parents to better understand the importance of preparing for the eleven plus.
Below we have reviewed two samples of student’s performance with their online eleven plus test papers from 11PlusDIY.com. Over a two week period we specifically looked at the:
- time students take to complete the online eleven plus test papers,
- test scores of student’s with online eleven plus test papers
- Improvement in student’s test scores over a number of days of testing.
The two samples chosen for this research were quite deliberate, one sample being students who consistently score the highest on 11PlusDIY.com and the other being a sample of what we consider to be the mean scoring students.
Results - Sample 1
Sample 1 examines those students who consistently score the highest on 11PlusDIY.com.
The test results of this sample were astonishing in that as these students reduce the time they take to complete online eleven plus test papers, they actually improve their scores (See Figure 1).
Figure 1 below shows a strong correlation between reducing time and increasing performance scores for Sample 1.
Figure 1 – Sample 1 (Time to complete online eleven plus test papers vs Test score out of 30)
Figure 2 shows (as expected) that as students spend more days doing online eleven plus test papers, the scores they achieve in these online eleven plus test papers increase rapidly.
Figure 2 - Sample 1 (Date test completed vs Test score out of 30)
Sample 1 - Conclusion
Our Sample 1 conclusion is that those students, who consistently score the highest marks on the online eleven plus test papers, actually score these higher marks whilst reducing the time they take to complete the online eleven plus test papers. They also improve their scores in a very rapid fashion as they take more online eleven plus test papers over a number of days.
Results - Sample 2
Sample 2 excluded those students who consistently score the highest on 11PlusDIY and was considered a mean batch of students.
Our results were that Sample 2 work slower (on average) than Sample 1 and appear to fit with a more commonly held hypotheses that in order to improve one’s score, the student must take more time to complete online eleven plus test papers (See Figure 3).
Figure 3 – Sample 2 (Time to complete online eleven plus test papers vs Test score out of 30)
Our research also recognised that Sample 2 (as with Sample 1) improve their test scores over a number of days as they have more test paper practice, although the improvement of Sample 2 appears to be less pronounced than Sample 1 (See Figure 4).
Figure 4 - Sample 2 (Date test completed vs Test score out of 30)
Conclusion
The over-riding conclusion of our brief analysis is that all students improve their online eleven plus test paper scores as they spend more time completing online eleven plus test papers. Practice makes perfect.
Quite strangely, our analysis does highlight that we currently have a batch of high performing students whose scores have proven to get better as they increase the speed at which they complete online eleven plus test papers. This was not expected but is interesting from an academic point of view.
In light of this brief analysis, our advice to all students would be to work efficiently and manage your time, but always take time to understand the question and continue to practice hard before the exam day.
