Was Langley exam (secondary school) difficult this year?

[anupreet]

Hi I havent received any letter up till now. Is the school just informing successful candidates only? Vey worried.

HI Anupreet,

Hope you have received the letter, if not ring the school where your child took the exam.

Called up the school and asked them to re-send the letter as it had not arrived, ds passed with a score of 122.

Thanks for asking.

[faitaccompli]

Well done. My son failed - he scored 110 - he only had two months to prepare - I suppose from never having seen VR and NVR to taking the test within two months, it is a respectable score. But not enough. Level 5s, reading and spelling ages of 13.5 yrs are simply not enough to get into grammar schools. Very upset for him (and for me, to be honest).

[ninja11]

I do feel for you and your ds faitaccompli.
My dd was also at level 5s in Maths and English reading/writing in the start of year 5 and I had this feeling that she should be able to do well in 11-plus without “special preparation”. Luckily, we did some practice tests quite early last year and I realized that we do need “special preparation” to score higher than 85% consistently in test papers and to increase any chances of success.
So we had good 7-8 months to go through 'How to do VR/NVR' books and to practice varied range of test papers with different difficulty levels. It paid off and she did very well in her LGS exam.
I think that there are very few children who can get high VR & NVR scores without doing enough practice papers. Your ds still did very well in getting 110 with 2 months study and you should be proud of him. I do not think that ‘failed’ will be the correct term to use here.

[Looking for help]

Well done. My son failed - he scored 110 - he only had two months to prepare - I suppose from never having seen VR and NVR to taking the test within two months, it is a respectable score. But not enough. Level 5s, reading and spelling ages of 13.5 yrs are simply not enough to get into grammar schools. Very upset for him (and for me, to be honest).

It is a nightmare, faitaccompli, your son hasn't failed, he just hasn't reached an arbitrary score decided on by someone who also failed to point out that this isn't enough for the likes of Langley - have you St Bernard's on your CAF? You might be more likely to achieve a successful appeal there.
I think you also have the Bucks exam to do yet, you may very well get a good result there, try not to worry, and good luck

[faitaccompli]

Thank you. I didn't hve St B on my CAF as although I am catholic, my son has not been baptised and according to their website he is not eligible.
And yes - you are right - we still have Bucks to sit next month. Hoping that he has a better test day (and doing LOADS of vocab practice!)

[hasmum]

Good luck faitaccompli, hope he does better in Bucks. One thing that really did stick in my mind was something Patricia mentioned somewhere on the forum was that if the dc get 100 % in all the non vocab q's such as the codes, letter sequences and the number question,s that gives you a good chance of passing, as they may make mistakes on the vocab qs. I made sure he could do these with no or the odd mistake.

I have to say my ds never really read books,bought him so many just wasn't interested, more into his consoles etc. (only ourselves to blame really).

We did alot of VR practice papers and I/we used to write out all the words he didn't know in a book along with the word lists from this site from Patricia and make him look it up in the dictionary, to get him used to it. I tested him on and off on the words.

[faitaccompli]

Thanks Hasmum - he is generally pretty much 100% on the non vocab questions - but looking at the scores, I think that there was leeway for 7 incorrect answers to score highly enough to get into Langley and it looks like he had nearer 12 wrong (i think 11 wrong would have given him the 111 pass mark).

We are currently doing lots of vocab practice; I have followed your advice and am making him write things down - this sticks better in his head than just looking at them on a sheet and forgetting them instantly!!!

Thanks for your support and help - it is really much appreciated!

[munch]

faitaccompli-your DS has done well with only 2 months prep!!
I have some stuff from another poster on this forum which is very useful for vocab with pictures for memory recall. Pm me if you would like it or you may be able to find it on the forum yourself and request it from the original poster.

[chad]

It does look as if a high score (less than 10/11 wrong) was needed to achieve the pass rate, something around the 87% mark. A couple of errors would make a huge difference.
Your son has done extremely well to achieve a good score in such a short time.

[mad?]

Yes, I think a well done is in order and good luck for Bucks.