best Preparation for Kendrick

[Goldens Mum]

Hopefully I'm safe to ask this now the later Kendrick exam had been and gone for this year.
My daughter is in year 4. I was wondering what practise papers best match those actually taken at Kendrick. The website says they use GL, so I have got some to use nearer the time, but currently just doing a couple of Bond 10 minute tests each week. A friend of mine from a completely different part of the country said that her girls found the Bond papers the hardest.
The only NVR question type she really struggles with at the moment are the cube type ones, but I'm sure I've read somewhere in this forum that these don't come up in the actual exam. It would be good to hear from those who have gone through, though I'l still work on those anyway.
Any other advice for preparing for Kendrick would be most welcome too!

Thanks

[stevew61]

We are in a similar position DD in year 4.

For NVR we skimmed through the AE How To Do books, found some of the 4 and 5 level questions tricky will go back to them later, have photocopied Bond NVR ten minute tests and worked through those ignoring cubes! I do not think, but am not sure, that they come up at Kendrick. The Bond How To Do NVR book has a few pages explaining nets of cubes and we will spend an afternoon playing with nets, cutting and folding at holiday time. Other NVR to look at are the elevenplus exams e-papers and CDs from the web shop.

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/epaper ... =f&c=4&p=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/cd/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We have started working through the four 11 plus Verbal Reasoning Technique And Practice books by Susan Daughtrey. Some of the examples are a bit off putting so I have created simpler examples or used similar lower level question types, left over Tutors e-papers levels 1 and 2.

We have covered a lot of question techniques, next step is to look at timing and mixing up VR types to see if she remembers! Only doing short sessions but will in September move to longer sessions and part-papers. Well that is the plan.

I know one forum member has detailed feedback from the 2010 exam which they will be posting soon. If you look back through old threads format of 2009 and 2008? exams are scattered around, they key is they are very much like the shop bought nfer/gl papers.

[aliportico]

At this stage I would carry on doing a variety of books/tests and not get too bogged down in preparing for exactly which questions will come up on the Kendrick test. We went through the Bond books up to the Fifth papers, plus a couple of random other books that I don't remember, plus the free sample VR downloads from this site (dd1 is now in Y9 there). If you look on the Bucks forum, patricia has written a lot on there about which VR books to use - they use GL tests like Kendrick as far as I know.

[stevew61]

Be careful, Bucks do VR 21 question types multiple choice, Kendrick do VR 35 question type standard format.

All? of the 21 types are contained within the 35 types so you can use 21 type multiple choice materials, I do as the Tutors have some lower level questions, but I would focus on the 35 types and standard format for Kendrick.

Reading School are now composing their own papers so can contain a much wider range of question types so learning how to cope with unknown question types is a skill worth learning.

[aliportico]

lol, I shouldn't even bother trying to give advice - could never remember all the details of what type of question went where when dd1 was doing the test and that was 3 years ago ! I'll just be supportive and say that I think for this year whatever you do is all good experience And then this time next year start being more focused if that's what you want.

[Goldens Mum]

Thanks everyone.
I'm not intending to do loads this year and like you Steve, waiting until start of year 5 before getting a bit more stuck in. Even then I don't want to be overcoaching her so to speak. If she gets in I want her to be able to cope when she gets there!
I currently thought that doing a couple of the bond 10 minute tests a week would be good to start with and DD likes doing them as they don't take too much time. I might throw in the odd assessment paper now and again just to see if she is progressing.
I guess by the exam they should comfortable with bond level 5 stuff to stand any chance.

[cocoa0101]

It sounds like you are doing all the right stuff. Just make sure she is reading and do all you can to help build up her vocab through games like Boggle, Scrabble and wordy puzzles found in national newspapers. http://www.freerice.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is also a useful variation.

[Goldens Mum]

It sounds like you are doing all the right stuff. Just make sure she is reading ...

Believe me thats not a problem, we have to tell her to stop reading.
We discovered Scrabble trickster over the summer. Normal scrabble with trick cards as well to make it more interesting and helps even out the game a bit too. (I sometimes even win!)

[11+ novice]

Be careful, Bucks do VR 21 question types multiple choice, Kendrick do VR 35 question type standard format.

All? of the 21 types are contained within the 35 types so you can use 21 type multiple choice materials, I do as the Tutors have some lower level questions, but I would focus on the 35 types and standard format for Kendrick.

Reading School are now composing their own papers so can contain a much wider range of question types so learning how to cope with unknown question types is a skill worth learning.

A question for Steve regarding Reading School VR

I was under the impression that they did 21 types like bucks except there were lots of type Z.
I am obviously mistaken! Can you advise what is the best way to prepare for VR for Reading. Recommended books?How many types? Any help appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[stevew61]

regarding Reading School VR

I was under the impression that they did 21 types like bucks except there were lots of type Z.

Previously it was an NFER multiple-choice 21 type paper.

Last year, and the year before, it was a Reading made mixed reasoning paper, 25 NVR Qs and 25 VR Qs. It was multiple choice so looked like the 21 NFER types and yes contained lots of information Z type questions. I didn't get detailed feedback from my DS2

As it is VR multiple choice I would start with NFER 21 types as in Bucks but then focus on Z type and information questions from any other sources, we used Tutors epapers level 4 just for Z type,


http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/epaper ... mp%3Bp%3D6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

also the Susan Daughtrey books 1-4 (but only coz they were in the house for DD), also searched online for logic problems, found some sites with sample psychometric testing questions that looked good. In a way you are preparing for the unknown so the skill of keep calm and carry on helps.