Examining Essays for Eleven Plus Classification

S ummary . A procedure for overcoming the marking and administrative problems of using the essay in selection examinations is described. It combines assessments of children by their own teachers with an external essay examination. The difficulties of this are overcome (1) by a system of splitting the essays by sex and title and by further sub‐dividing for convenience of size of batches and (2) by using prepared tables which impose a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 on these batches. Certain weaknesses of the usual marking routines are examined and evidence offered for the need for variety of titles if children are to be assessed fairly. Validity as measured against success in grammar school examinations of varied content is as high as that for objective tests of verbal reasoning, English and arithmetic

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