Will participating in the online trial replace my paper tests?

NFER online assessments are not yet a finished product and you will not be able to access the detailed analysis that our paper tests provide, until they are available for purchase. Therefore, we recommend that the NFER online assessments do not replace your paper tests this year. However, if you would like to do both the paper tests and take part in the trial of NFER online assessments you are welcome to do so. If you decide that you would prefer not to administer paper tests this year, your tests will remain valid and can be saved for next year. 

The aim of the standardisation trials is to obtain data on the functioning of the questions so that we can select the best set of questions to make up the final assessment, taking into account a variety of considerations such as overall test difficulty and the balance across curriculum areas. We also use the trial data to produce standardised and age-standardised scores for the final assessment and to inform the development of the mark schemes, ensuring that all answers are addressed in the mark schemes and that marks can be awarded fairly and accurately. Until all these aspects are achieved, we are not able to offer the detailed analysis that our paper tests provide. However, taking part in trials will enable your school to trial NFER online assessments without purchase and may help you decide whether to use them in your school when they are available for sale.  

We are able to provide some school feedback for participating pupils. This will be available in the term after the trial.  For each pupil we will provide a raw score and the percentage of correct answers per assessment. We will also provide the percentage of correct answers achieved by the whole sample of pupils who participated in the standardisation trial, allowing you to compare your pupils' performance to other participating pupils across the country.