SAT's

cynder

My young lady sat her STEN6, 2 weeks ago in 6th class, her results were given to us in the parent teacher meeting she scored an average 6 (down from last years 7 and 8) , the teacher said her work at school is up in the top 20% but it doesn't shine through in her exams, he said she is either going in with 'i couldn't be arsed' attitude or she isnt retaining the information.

Not having gone to secondary school myself im unsure how to help her when she does go next September. Her home work is excellent, projects excellent and everything done in class is excellent so how do you get this to shine through when doing exams?


Sorry dont mean sats, ooopps.

byhookorbycrook

Are you sure it was SATS?More likely to be Drumcondra/Micra-T/SigmaT.

If so, and she scored a STEN6 she would be a good average.

cynder

Yep its sten6 ( dont know why i had sat's in my head) Standardised assessment tests ??


Yep its defo the sten.

I know its average but the teacher was quite disapointed as he felt she let herself down and she is was better than that is her everyday school work said she should be getting way higher around 8.

I more so worried about secondary school when she starts next September, if she cant retain information, or has a 'i cant be arsed' attitude. How can i help her now to reach her full potential?

Ayla

I've been thinking on this & am wondering if her exam results might not be down more to test anxiety? I know I was great in class & doing h/w, but sit me down at a standardised testing situation & my brain would blank. My test results never really reflected what I did/didn't know. And of course, the more I realised this, the worse I got, so it was a self-fulfilling cycle.

What does she say when you talk to her about her results?

grindelwald

grindelwald wrote: »

I more so worried about secondary school when she starts next September, if she cant retain information, or has a 'i cant be arsed' attitude. How can i help her now to reach her full potential?

Speaking as someone who spent secondary school in the opposite situation (always did better than I deserved in exams), I'd say it might be neither her information retention nor her attitude.

Exam performance is a skill in itself, especially at second-level education. It's not just down to what you've done in class and how much you know outside an exam hall. I wouldn't worry too much if I were you, as the one thing the Irish system does well is improving exam performance (in fact it concentrates so much on exams that it's often described as a fault). People very often prepare for exams by learning information rather than preparing for the actual environment of an exam, which is a mistake. This means time-management, feeling comfortable in the surroundings/atmosphere, being able to focus under pressure and distraction, knowing and being comfortable with the layout in advance and knowing the approach best used. The best way to learn this practice is by being familiar with taking exams. These are all things that can be let develop naturally throughout secondary school unless it gets to Leaving cert time and it still hasn't sunk in. So you have plenty of time, don't worry.

cynder

I don't want her to think I'm disappointed in her, do haven't really pushed the subject. She said she drew blanks, couldnt think and shrugged it off.

The teacher himself said she should have easily got 8's and he was quite surprised she didn't , well she has a few years to get used to exams before the j. cert. Fingers crossed she will get to grips with exams.

byhookorbycrook

The test results are expressed as STEN, do you know was it Drumcondra or Micra?Children score up and down for every kind of reason, tiredness,off day,test anxiety etc. Remeber the score is only a picture of how the child did on one day. If her work is generally of a higher standard, then I'd not worry too much. Also a few percentile points can move you up or down ,so it may look like a big drop from 7 to 6 but it could literally be one question.

cynder

No idea if it was drumcondra or micra. will try and find out on monday.

byhookorbycrook

The reason I ask is that the Drumcondra is thought to be "harder" than the Micra. Ask what percentile she got this year and last year, it will give you a better idea of how much of a difference there is in scores.

IMightKnow

I don't think those tests (we used to do sigma and dromcondra) are a direct predictor on how well one will do in secondary school.

I used to find the maths really difficult in those but JC maths I did really well in for example.

Honestly, don't take it that if she doesn't do as well as she should in these that it will effect her ability to do really well in secondary school tests, in fact I don't think I would even bring it up with her.