The scoring rubric and number of incorrect answers

[JenFG]

Could someone please explain how the selective enrollment's scoring rubric works for the Exam portion? I believe there are 72 or 75 questions on the AC test. How much does each incorrect answer drop one's score? I'm confused by the "Know Your Score" section on selectiveprep.com. If I input straight A's, 99th percentiles, Tier 4, it tells me I'd need 99.865 for rank mean and 99.018 for Tier mean for Whitney Young's AC. Yikes. I know it is competitive, but if the required score is in the 99s--about how many can they get wrong? One, two? :confused:

[RL Julia]

If I recall, there are about 72 questions on the exam and the results are weighted by your child's age at the time of the test as the entrance exam is more of an IQ type of test than a knowledge based sort of test. The test results tend to skew lower than on the SEHS exam. Last year Whitney Young's Academic Center cut off merit slots at 868.5. For Tier 4 the cut off was 846. I would use the know your score application on CPS's webpage for SEHS's to manipulate your individual data.

For what it is worth, my daughter didn't finish the last 7 questions on the exam (who knows how many other questions she got wrong) and got in. However, she is young for the grade and I can only assume that helped. Her overall score was 841 (I think). She also reported that she thought a lot of kids also didn't finish the test given the number of groans when the proctors called time.

http://cpsoae.org/Academic%20Center%20Cutoff%20Scores%202012-2013%20--%20Round%20One.pdf - cut off scores for last year's AC's.

http://cpsoae.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=72696&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=200840 - calculator - use your child's 5th grade ISAT scores and grades.

Hope this helps. Be sure to check out the other AC's as well. There is no reasons to not have a 2nd or 3rd choice as long as you are making an application.

[JenFG]

Thank you for that info! Yep, we will be applying to more than one; I had only listed WY because I knew its #s were the most intimidating, and I couldn't quite wrap my brain around it. I also want to only consider schools with reasonable commutes once HS starts and bus services ends.

Many thanks!