What Are The 3 NEW Changes Coming to The 2021 Selective Exam?

The Selective Exam will be undergoing significant changes to the 2021 exam and beyond. That is why it is crucial to know what these changes are so you can best prepare your child for the test and subsequently maximise your chances of landing into a Selective school.

1. Selective high school test is not difficult enough
   (Action 5: Align the difficulty of the tests to the ability levels of the gifted students sitting them).
   
   Not enough questions targeted the upper levels of student ability, particularly in the reading tests. More difficult questions were more likely to feature in the maths and general ability tests.
   

2. The tests are unintentionally weighted towards maths over English
   (Action 7: ensure subjects are correctly weighted).
   
   Analysis of the selective test found that there was such a high correlation between the maths and G.A test where if you were really good in maths, it was worth over 50% of the overall placement score. This suggests there were too many numerical reasoning questions in the g.a test and maths is overweighted internally in the school assessment score. So with more boys achieving higher in maths and general ability while girls achieving slightly better in reading and writing. This led to more boys having a higher overall score.
   

3. Test design and structure is predictable
   (Action 8: Reduce coachability and support schools in preparing gifted students).
   
   Predictable tests show on the day performance rather than true ability where the format and question type is very predictable. Not having enough difficult items (see Action 5) means that high scores can be achieved by correctly answering moderately difficult questions with great consistency – which can result from preparation and practice. This makes it difficult to differentiate between students of very high ability (who would be able to answer correctly questions of higher difficulty) and those with high ability who are proficient at test-taking.
   

These changes are not the only changes that will occur however they are the ones that I have personally identified to be the most impactful compared to the others. Other changes include their rationale of making exams online in 2022 onwards which are interesting but will not have any impact on the 2021 exam for instance.

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