B/Ham KE Exam Content 2005-2016

Eleven Plus (11+) in Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Wrekin

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KenR
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B/Ham KE Exam Content 2005-2016

Post by KenR »

Quite a lot of information on the historical content of the B/Ham KE Foundation grammar 11+ exams has been posted by parents on this forum. To give parents an idea of what to their child may expect in future B/ham KE 11+ exams I have collated the various bits of information together into a single content Sticky. This is shown in decending chronological order:

I should warn parents that many children find the comprehension content (which usually comes first) very hard, so it's best that they are prepared to expect this and try not to let this affect their approach to the following sections.

Disclaimer: Univ of Durham CEM who prepare the tests do not give advance notice of the content. They are always looking for new ways to test children. There is no guarantee that any or all of the content of previous tests will be included in future B/Ham KE 11+ exams.

Best of Luck

With Acknowledgement to lots of the Elevenplusexams Birmingham Forum contributors, including KE Hopeful, fm, KEMum, Marg, Beancounter, Andy, Overthe rainbow, PC, Shinealight, DIY Mum, REEYAH, TURTLEGIRL & Sallyannb1 et al

updated with Nov 2011 exam content details (with thanks to KE Hopeful, REEYAH, TURTLEGIRL & Sallyannb1 ) will be amended if further feedback is available
updated with Sept 2012 exam content details (with thanks to SSS, Lottie78, MSD, Niciolajane1971 & Bubble) will be amended if further feedback is available
updated with Sept 2013 exam content details (with thanks to OldTrout, Turtlegirl, Reeyah and Firebrand) will be updated if further feedback available.
updated with Sept 2015 exam content details (with thanks to OldTrout, MSD and Turtlegirl) will be updated if further feedback available.
updated with Sept 2016 exam content details (with thanks to Moshimoshi, veryhopeful, Thumsup, Nard and Mum1115) will be updated if further feedback available.

KING EDWARD & CONSORTIUM EXAM SEPT 2016

Paper 1 (50mins)
SYNONYMS (Section 1) – about 6 minutes for 28 questions.
Words included opportune, orange, cosmic, nautical, volatile

COMPREHENSION (Section 2) - 16/17 minutes for 25 questions. (including time to read text)
About two cats who are brother and sister. Sister asks, "what do you want to be when you grow up?". "A lion". Why did the brother ignore her the first time. Multiple type questions that had few questions about meaning of words found in passage at the end. Questions included fact finding and inference.

NVR (Section 3) - about 9 mins for 20 questions.
Questions included finding missing square in grid of 9. No cubes or nets.

MATHS (Section 4) about 18 mins for 20 questions.
Zane had x flour, y eggs, z butter. How many cakes can you make?
Some questions similar to those given on familiarization sheet.
Maths was on both papers and a mix between middle length questions/longer problem solving.

Paper 2 (50mins)

ANTONYMS (Section 1) - About 6mins for 24 questions
One child thought this section and the Synonyms in paper 1 were hard and had to guess about 6 questions in each section.

MATHS (Section 2) - About 18 mins for 24 questions.
0.75 + 1/2 + 3/4
What is the perimeter of farm (add all the fences, subtract the gates)
7 cars move to centre of junction, 4 more cars move to centre of junction, 9 cars move away from junction, how many left? Geometry angles in a triangle

CLOZE (Section 3) - About 7 mins for 15 questions.
4 sections with about 3-5 words missing in each and a bank/pool of words to choose from. One candidate said there was a lot more words than blanks.
Another candidate said this was easy and was able to complete the whole section.

NVR (Section 4) - About 11 mins for 24 questions.
One candidate said this was ok but they had to guess a few (2-3) at the end.

SHUFFLED SENTENCES (Section 5) About 7 mins for 14 questions
With extra words.
One candidate said this was difficult with time pressure and was not able to complete


KING EDWARD & CONSORTIUM EXAM SEPT 2015

Paper 1 (45mins)

COMPREHENSION - (candidates were unclear if this or the Cloze was in paper 1 or 2- no firm timings or number of questions but based on previous years this has typically been about 15 minutes with about 25 questions. [including time to read text])
A Story about a girl who was told if she cleaned her room she could go to a concert. Candidate commented that unlike Bond books - often the answer couldn't be found in just one little section of the text, it was more general - so you had to have read and understood the whole text. A few questions on the meaning of words in certain lines.

Another candidate said it was a standard comprehension that they found comfortable on time. They thought most questions were testing on factual stuff rather than inferential. Commented that they found it easier than tutors work and the mocks.

SYNONYMS – about 6 minutes for 25 questions.
Words included aristocrat and dam.
(One candidate found this OK on time and mentioned that they had learnt most of the words already through the tutors vocab sheets provided – except for the above 2)
Another said they were kind of mixed. Some were a hard word with 4 or 5 easy options for synonym - but there were some where the word was easy and the answers were difficult.

NVR (timing and number of questions unclear)
Explained by 1 candidate as sequences of shapes and there would be 2nd to last shape or 2nd shape missing and you had to identify the missing shape from a selection of perhaps 6 choices. There was only one gap per sequence for this paper.
Further explained by another candidate as being 9 shapes in a box and they had to work missing one.

MATHS (unclear how many questions or timings but both papers had a maths section)
In both cases these comprised individual questions rather than the more usual problem solving with sub-sections.
Maths in paper 1 was mainly percentages & numeric calculations (some slightly algebraic) - there was a particular long question about a field of animals. You were given the total number of all animals and the relative proportion of different types of animals were described (i.e. twice as many zebras as lions, 10 more lions than giraffes) and you had to work out the actual number of different animals. There were shorter, more straightforward questions as well.
There was only one bit with a tricky maths section in the first paper where you had to mark tens/ units like the sample paper instructions sent to all candidates. The other maths section - you had a multiple choice of possible answers.

Possible tiny amount of data handling in this paper, although there may have been in both papers
Questions across both papers included:-
1. John could run at a speed of 8km per second while Ben could run at a speed of 6km per second. After 12 seconds, how far behind was Ben?

2. A cake was split equally between three friends, Bob, John and Mary. Bob had half of his share, John had 1/3 of his share and Mary had 2/3 of her share. How much of the cake did they have altogether?

3. What is 3/4 + 1/2?

4. Three friends participated in a jumping competition. Mary jumped 3cm lower than Ben, who jumped 16cm below John, who jumped 12cm below Adam. Adam jumped 143cm high. How high did Mary jump?

5. Mary swam every other day. John swam every 3 days. The first day they swam together was on the 2nd September. When was the next time they swam together?

6. John built a tent. The front face of it was triangular. If one of the angles was 86 degrees and the other two angles were equal, how much does each angle measure?

7. It takes an hour to walk 13 km and another hour to walk up hill for 6km. If you walked for 4 hours then another 4 hours uphill how far will you have travelled?

VERBAL (possibly on Paper 2 – candidates were unclear)
Mixed words to make a sentence section was there. Series of words to put in order and one did not belong. You had to indicate which one didn't belong, but didn't have to write the sentence.

----- Break

Paper 2 (45 Mins)

ANTONYMS – about 6 minutes for 25 questions

MATHS - (unclear how many questions or timings but both papers had a maths section)
Second Maths paper was similar to first but maybe a bit more geometry (areas/ perimeter) and some algebra. There were some money questions. Unfortunately, candidate couldn’t remember anything specific - other than in general they were short or medium questions - i.e. not long bit of text/ table to study and then answer a series of questions.

(see above questions)


CLOZE (timing and number of questions unclear or whether this or the Comprehension was in paper 1 or 2)
There were four small Cloze sections with word bank at the top. One candidate found it pretty easy on time and content. The only word they could remember was "materialised". Again, found it easier than tutors work and the mocks.
Another candidate said you were given a list of words to choose from to fill in the blanks in a paragraph - each paragraph had a separate list. Candidate thought there were about 6 of these paragraphs. There were more words to choose from than blanks. Subjects included a paragraph about a dog playing with a person and there was one about a school science project with soda volcanoes, but candidate couldn’t remember much else.

NVR (timing and number of questions unclear)
One candidate said that the 2nd NVR was pretty much the same, but with 2 missing shapes. These were pretty similar to your usual bond matrices. One candidate commented that this was the only section where they struggled a little on time. They managed to get through everything apart from 1 last question, that they randomly guessed. (Parent commented that going by experience the child wasn’t the fastest on NVR so other kids might have found the time comfortable. Again, candidate found the content easier that previous mocks and what they had covered with tutor.)

VERBAL (possibly on Paper 1 – candidates were unclear)
Mixed words to make a sentence section was there. Series of words to put in order and one did not belong. You had to indicate which one didn't belong, but didn't have to write the sentence.


Further Notes and comments:-

The test was mainly multiple choice and the answer sheet was separate to the test book. You could write in the test book - which was useful for maths.
One parent commented that Camp Hill was very nice - it was calm and relaxed and you were guided through the school by students who were all polite and friendly. It was organised and surprisingly pleasant.


KING EDWARD & CONSORTIUM EXAM SEPT 2013
Paper 1 (45 Mins)

COMPREHENSION 15 minutes with about 25 questions. (including time to read text)
A story about Charlie (a boy who read Sherlock Holmes stories), who was on the train and began to think that a man sitting opposite was a foreign spy, although the man turns out to be an estate agent.
The story was about 1 1/3 pages long.
Questions included: 'What did Charlie like to do in his spare time?' (Read detective stories) and 'What does Charlie think that the evil spies will look like?' (Sunglasses and a locked briefcase).

SYNONYMS and ANTONYMS - 6 minutes for about 15-20 of each.
Words included Feign
(Some found this hard, some easy - one child finished about 25 of the 30)

NVR 10mins for about 20 questions
Sets of 5 pictures with a space for a 6th. You had to choose from 6 options which would be the next in the sequence.
Something new. A sequence of five images with two blanks that you need to fill in.

VERBAL
Leftover words 7-8mins for about 12-15 questions
As previous exams - jumbled sentences with an extra word thrown in - you have to identify the spare word.
( one child thinks they did 8 and guessed at last 4 due to time.)
One child explained this as "you were given 8 words and had to work out which 7 made the sentence and which word didn't fit" (Thought there were about 15 questions and thinks there was around 8 minutes to do this one. Completed 12 of the 15.)

Interestingly in terms of English - there were no grammar or punctuation questions.

----- Break

Paper 2 (45 Mins)

MATHS - 30 minutes, unclear how many questions, but 4 main sections with subquestions, each attracting 1 or 2 marks each:
Sue's animals: questions about scales of model figures
Sally's hats: Sally needs to make 100 hats. If she makes 8 a day starting on 5th October, when will she finish? She hires an assistant Louise, who can make 4 hats a day. How many days would it take for them both to make 100 hats? The hats cost £45 for 5 or £9.15 each. Mrs Thomas wants to buy 50 for her shop. How much would it cost?
Hannah's train schedule: Hannah want to travel from Durham to York and back - find the cheapest way.
Perimeter and area - 3 squares on top of one another. The smallest has an area of 400cm2 and a perimeter of 80cm. Had to find the sizes of the other squares.
Several multiple part questions - things covered included area (trapezium apparently), perimeter, percentages, data handling (tables/ charts of information). Also several 'word problems' - where you were given information about something and then had to answer based on that information/ working out difference. For example - there was a problem where you had a table of ticket prices and had to work out which option was cheaper - family ticket or individual tickets.

Also included questions on scales, animal sizes eg if -------- is 1cm which is 1m in real life, how big are the animals pictured below (then drawings of animals)

Notably, no algebra type questions and no sequences (10 18 26....) style questions.
(One child where Maths was the strongest subject did manage to finish this section in the time and had time to check answers.)


CLOZE Section 6-7 mins about 20-25 Questions
Story about the Olympics - whether we should have fun school events like tug of war and what we should have in future Olympics.
"Hang-man" style clues where you had to guess the missing letters. Started out easily and got progressively harder.
(One child guessed 20 - 25 - but didn't finish the last 3 or 4.)

NVR About 9 mins
A 9x9 grid with one space missing. You had to work out from bottom two lines of three how the missing space would look. ie Grid of 9 squares and you guess the missing square.
(one child said they were either adding or subtracting shapes.)
Also something new. A sequence of five images with two blanks that you need to fill in.

General Comments and quotes from Children & Parents about the Sept 2013 exam:

Thought harder than Walsall

KING EDWARD & CONSORTIUM EXAM SEPT 2012
Paper 1 (45 Mins)

COMPREHENSION - Multiple Choice about 25 questions in about 10-15 Mins
About a family that went to buy a pet dog from a rescue home. They came home with two dogs, one large dog and one small dog.
Multiple Choice - What type of dog did each family member want? Why was the small dog in the office instead of outside?

One child thought this the easiest part of the test with plenty of time and only a couple of difficult questions. They had enough time left to go through and check the answers.
Another child thought this was easy/medium

MATHS SECTION 6-8 big questions with around 4 sub questions on each (circa 32-40 questions in total) in about 30-35 mins.
Data table on children and their pets, how many pets did certain people have?
Ingredients for one cake, how much would you need to bake 12 cakes? How much would it cost?
T shaped tiles, fitting together in a pattern, one child couldn’t remember what the full question was even though they managed to answer it OK.
There was a flight times section, animal count section, pentagon shape problem, ratios etc.

Last question was the most difficult and was about a bus route with a number of buses joining the route at various stops. How long would a journey take and what was the average time/speed? What distance did they travel? What buses stopped here?

One child said that time was tight to complete this question so rushed at the end and missed a few answers out.

Another child said a couple of the maths questions were very difficult and they just guessed answers rather than waste time, (parent wondered whether there was a deliberate time consuming one put in that they were supposed to move on from rather than complete?) child rated maths 4 out of 5 in terms of difficulty, ok in terms of time.
A further child thought this section was hard



----- Break

Paper 2 (45 Mins)

ANTONYMS - approx. 25 -35 multiple choice questions in about 8 minutes (see examples words below)
e.g tempestuous, conceited, volatile, inconspicuous, foe, submissive.

CLOZE (Type-1 missing letters from words) One where the word was given with missing letters in the passage and you had to fill these missing letters. This is similar to one given in the sample KE paper this year. About 25 words in 10 minutes.
Subject was about Volcano Rabbits – rabbits that lived on volcanoes and used other animals’ abandoned homes to live in.
One child thought this was a reasonably hard cloze test, managed a fair amount of words (e.g. Abode, demolished, habitat, dwelling) but also guessed some and left out a few too.
Another child found this very difficult, unable to complete.

CLOZE (Type-2 full word) Choice of 1 word in 4 – approx. 25-36 questions in 8-10 mins
Select a word from 4 options that best fits the sentence. The subject was ‘learning how to sail’. Both easy and hard words, but one child felt it was a difficult subject matter that included some sailing terminology that was hard to follow.
(Note: there is some debate whether the Cloze type 1 passage was about Volcano rabbits or Sailing!)


NON VERBAL (now confirmed NVR was in paper-2– there were originally conflicting reports. - approx. 20 questions - about 6-10 mins
  • • Sequences
    • 3x3 grids with a missing square and patterns
    • No questions on rotation
General Comments and quotes from Children & Parents about the Sept 2012 exam:

General Comments: Non-Verbal was OK, just about managed to answer them all in the time allocated. Comprehension was interesting and no problems answering in the time given. Verbal Reasoning & Cloze had some easy and some impossible words and even with enough time to check, she left a few unanswered. Maths was OK until last question about buses, and she ran out of time on this question.

A lot of friends children (who have been tutored for 1 to 2 years versus my DS being a last minute) were telling their parents that none of the exam had been covered by their tutor. I quizzed DS on this and he said that he could understand this as the format of it looked like nothing he had ever seen before BUT that the fundamentals were the same.

He said it was easier than he expected (not that it was easy), we had primed him for it to be horrific though!


About Cloze Type-1: . He didn't know 10 of the missing letter cloze words in the KE test.

About NVR: was fine- type was 3x3 Grids with a missing square.

About Cloze: As far as I can gather there were two type of Cloze exercises. One where the word was given with missing letters in the passage and you had to fill these missing letters. The other one being a choice of 4 words and you had to pick the most appropriate to go in the passage. This is similar to one given in the sample KE paper this year.
no synonyms this year, there were antonyms and there was an odd word out( had to choose 1 word from 4 that was the odd one)
Maths was just several large questions. One definitely included tiles and area that DS said was very hard.



KING EDWARD & CONSORTIUM EXAM NOV 2011
Paper 1 (45 Mins)

COMPREHENSION - Multiple Choice about 21 questions in about 20 Mins
A comprehension on Elsie and Frances and the fairy photos (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies) talking about the original story and the explanation of the fraud in the 1980s.
Topic:- Cottingley Fairies. 2 girls who had taken photographs, shown them to their parents, word spread, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about it.
Comprehension was quite long - questions included eg. what is a beck?

NON VERBAL approx. 20 questions - about 6-8 mins
  • • Shape Rotation
    • Sequences and grids ( there were no cubes/block arrangements)
    • overall style was nfer-nelson type
SYNONYMS – approx. 24 questions in 8 minutes (see examples words below)

ANTONYMS - approx. 24 questions in about 8 minutes (see examples words below)
  • • Many children found some hard & some very hard
    • One child completed about 21 questions in each section
    • as in previous years in some cases, given word easy, but list of synonyms or antonyms were not
    • general view much harder than anything practiced e.g. Bond, GL, IPS, Duaghtrey
    • It should be noted that many of the example words below have been included in previous exams
    • Example words include: coy, humble; antiquity; abundance; flamboyant; tranquil, din (opposites); unorthodox; inaugurate; pigment; rigid
    • Other example words include: gregarious; evaluation; inferior; dismal; Trivial
----- Break

Paper 2 (45 Mins)

MATHS SECTION 7 big questions with around 4 sub questions on each (circa 28 in total) in about 30-35 mins
  • •The first question was using letters in a table, a bit like sudoku.
    • Another question was a table about Susie, Annie and Ben who collected animal figures eg horses. Also Graph of children's animals
    • Other examples: the time in New York is 7.00am when the time in England is 21.00pm. Every neutral mile is 1.25 normal miles. You go on a journey that is 3200 neutral miles long, how many normal miles is this?
    • Other examples: You set off from England on 20th, and travel to NY. The journey takes 6 days and 6hrs, what is the date and time that you arrive?
    • Other examples: Scales; 1 had 5 small triangles and 1 big triangles, that weighed 4.5 kgs. The next scale had 3 small triangles, and I big, and weighed 3.7 kgs. You had to find out what the weight of each small triangle was.
    • Other examples: Picture made up of shapes (eg. rhombus) - how many rhombuses? If area of picture is x, and area of rhombuses is y, what is area of parallelograms?
    • Other examples: Tiles - in shape of T, how many tiles need for wall? If extra xm to be tiled, how many more tiles needed?
    • The last question was about a magazine which had 92 pages, each 20x30cm pictures and drawings taking up 50% of space, 25% text and 25% ads. If 50 words took up 30cm2 how many words can you fit on a page.
L-O-N-G CLOZE ACTIVITY 2 pages & a number of questions in 8-10 mins (exact timing is not clear)
  • • Scattered words to fill in the letters
ENGLISH - Shuffled sentences - about 14 questions in about 8 mins
  • • which word will not fit in the sentence
    • Mixed up words given - they were meant to construct a sentence & decide which word was superfluous. Rows of words all mixed up, boxes underneath.
    • Make a sentence with all the words and the odd one out you shaded in a box.
    • Examples: . The rain the umbrella on fell water - The rain fell on the umbrella, so answer water
    • Other Example: The man put the hat on and left the house, answer head
    • Also: there were sentences with two words switched, as well as an extra rogue word. Apparently this was in the exam about 7 years ago
General Comments and quotes from Children & Parents about the Nov 2011 exam:

About synonyms and Antonyms: plenty of time, just very difficult

About Shuffled sentences:DS found quite difficult - seems to be luck if you can work out the sentence. Never come across anything like this before

About Non Verbal: Again fairly straight forward, but very tight on time - this is the only section DS did not manage to attempt all questions (but only left 2 unanswered)



KING EDWARD & CONSORTIUM EXAM NOV 2010

Paper 1

COMPREHENSION - Multiple Choice 18-20 questions in 15Mins
  • • Single passage on 'Curling' (the sport),
    • 1.5 pages of text,
    • info given on fixtures, results
    • Rhona Martin's(UK Captain) information + quotes,
    • Mixed messages as whether easy or difficult, with 1 or 2 definitely more difficult questions,
    • deductive type ( eg Did the team win? text gave score part way through match (4-3) and 2 quotes of what Rhona said after the match + mention of gold medal; Rhona’s character? Answer had to be based on 2 quotes from her.)
    • Example multiple questions include:
    1. How long has she been practising for?
    a. 6 months
    b. 1 yr
    c. Last 4 years
    d. Passage does not say

    2) Who was in the final?
    a. Canada and Switzerland
    b. Switzerland and Germany
    c. Britain and Canada
    d. Britain and Switzerland

    3) Which team did they win against?
    4) What is the best way to describe what happened in the story?
    5 ) Which words describe the main character best? e.g modest but competitive.
SYNONYMS – approx. 25-32 questions in 8 minutes
  • • some hard & some very hard
    • a few small 5 letter words but not many
    • children said even though small words didn;t know meaning
    • some cases, given word easy, but list of synonyms were not
    • general view much harder than anything practiced e.g. Bond, GL, IPS, Duaghtrey
    • Example words include: abundance, pompous, helix, uniform, contract, shrink, benefit, alert and rigid.
ANTONYMS - approx. 25-30 questions in 7 minutes
  • • Again difficult
    • again some hard some hard as never heard of some words
    • e.g. ruler/subject
L-O-N-G CLOZE ACTIVITY approx. 27-35 questions in 15 mins
  • • Topic: Florida Theme Parks, winter ski parks change to summer water parks,
    • words like subterfuge, only given first and last letters, no word bank
    • mainly 3 letters missing few with 2 letters e.g. slope, gentle, resort, younger
    • Other examples include(missing letters in red): intense, teenager, families, wide, length, high
----- Break

Paper 2

NON VERBAL SHAPES - approx. 20 questions - 7-8 mins
  • • Short questions in terms of the thinking needed.
    • plenty of sequencing questions,
    • overall style was nfer-nelson type
    • one child thought too much time (but child is exceptionally good at NVR)
MATHS SECTION 30 questions (5 short, 25 long) in 30 mins
  • • 5 short questions at start
    • 25 long questions, mostly 3 parts to each question
    • mixture of data and problem solving
    • e.g. Cake mix question: had 6 parts, you were given ingredients needed to make 6 cakes e.g .40 ml lemon juice, 20 eggs; question type: how many cakes from 200 eggs@ Answer (x) then how much lemon juice would that many cakes (x) require? Larger/smaller number of cakes --> changes to quantities of ingredients
    • e.g. you were given international times for cities such as London and Japan, asked about timings for international phone calls between cities or plane flights from one place to another - time started, time finished.
    • (time chart) what’s the difference in time between Moscow and New York? What time will they arrive if they left at 01:45? How long was the total journey?
    • e.g. Angle rules tested with triangle with lots of protruding lines and one angle given, needed to really know angle rules AND be able to apply them effectively
    • one child thought some questions were too complex/obscure, quite unfathomable, wouldn't have been able to do them no matter how much time was available, candidate felt they were unsuitable for a high speed test.
    • apparantly one about tiling a room that appeared in a previous year 120 tiles 30cm x 30cm etc
    • I think of a number that is a multiple of 6 and 4. It is between 15 and 30, what is it?
    • Some quick algebra questions also appeared within the long maths section; maximum of five questions.
NON VERBAL REASONING approx 20 Questions on sequences in about 7-8 mins
  • • Multiple choice
    • Similarites and Rotation
    • Harder than the first NVQ set on Paper 1,
    • got harder as it went on,
    • different style of NVR, not seen before, not Nfer-nelson, not Bond,
    • NO 3D stuff such as which cube can be made from a given net
    • series and matrices but of a more complex variety
    • Arrows rotated around 90°. Arrows added each time. Arrows combined with shapes (circles) and rotated. Choose one from a choice of four. One parent thought this may be similar to the latest Bond NVR type questions.
General Comments and quotes from Children & Parents about the Nov 2010 exam:

He said the test was quite straight forward with a few tricky questions but he said timing was a push i.e. not much time of any to check any of the work, I do not think the test was easy, as some people I have heard saying.

In maths, they dropped the quick maths paper (as they did 4 years ago) but think it will re-appear. Tiles and cakes were both questions from last year. The time zones was new. There were also some interpretative graphs.

Comprehension and cloze went from 2 and 3 passages respectively to just one of each but longer.

You have to beware of children saying it was easier. They actually mean it was easier than they were expecting.

Quote from a tutor about the Comprehension in Paper 1. My absolutely best said it was a bit hard, my next best said it was easy, my middle of the road children in English (5B/5c) thought it relatively hard and my pupils who are still on Sats 4 thought it very hard. So goodness knows what it was really like. Only one of my pupils said 'easy' and I did have very good pupils this year.


KING EDWARD EXAM NOV 2009

Paper 1

SYNONYMS - approx. 28-30 questions in 7 minutes - words included antiquity, pigment, gregarious

ANTONYMS - approx. 20-22 questions in 5 minutes - words included deliberate, din

LONG MATHS – approx 38-40 questions
1. Question about tiling a room - 120 tiles long, one tile 30 cm x 30 cm - what was length of room in cm and m? If tiles were 40p each how much would it cost to tile the room. (3 questions)
2. 3 passengers on bus at stop 1 - different stops, some got off, some got on - how many people on bus at stop 5 (only 1 question)
3. Bar chart of school clubs - 64 children in year, max 2 clubs each, 7 children don't go to a club, how many children went to 2 clubs (5 questions)
4. Table of 6 children - ticks for who has brothers, sisters, pets - how many have at least 1 brother and 1 sister; which statement is true (2 questions)
5. Mini olympics - large confusing grid with gaps - how many points each performance - gave total scores - fill in grid (4 questions to fill in grid, further 5 or 6 about the grid)

MATRICES/NVR – approx 20 questions

----- Break

Paper 2

2 COMPREHENSIONS - explorer went to Antarctica and saw red sky and amazing views – most found quite hard. eg. what colour sky - 10-12 multiple choice questions
Classroom in Winter - gave you where people sat, some people stuck in snow - 10-12 multiple choice questions – mixed views of difficulty - questions like which statement must be true, why was blackboard tilted diagonally, why were socks hanging from fire.
Missing words in 2 passages (about 18-24 in each); 10 minutes - first easy - about plane landing in Hudson River, example words tr---r (trader), damage, extinguisher, through, weapons. Second one hard - about Viking travellers from Norway - example Denmark.

QUICK MATHS – 25- 30 questions in 10 minutes eg. ordering fractions, lots of algebra

3D SHAPES/NVR - about 22-26 questions in 10 minutes - questions about shapes from different angles and rotated round
-------
(Notes: Key Changes from 2008
hexagonal lattices disappeared to be replaced by analogies
about 3 examples of this turned into this, and this turned into this, so what will this turn into....)



KING EDWARD EXAM NOV 2008
Paper 1

VOCAB : 56 questions in 12 minutes. 36/38 Straight synonyms/ 20 antonyms. Multiple choice. Difficult. Sample words – evaluation, orthodontist, nurseryman, wound, inferior, content, subdued, clemency, debrief, precarious, vicarious, perplexed, apprehensive, physiotherapy, subterranean, conclusion, superfluous, polarity, nauseous, frivolous, altitude, trivial, emerge, pigment, covet, antiquity, tranquil, drought, passive, incision, bewildered, device. This is an area not tested at school so, even if your child is regarded as good at English, they may find this exceptionally difficult.

MATHS DATA-INTERPRETATION : Graphs, routes, timetables, magic squares, puzzles, fraction work (not adding so much as showing an understanding of). Test their ability to read and interpret information. Some questions are as much logic as maths. Good reading skills required as well as excellent maths ability. Very hard. 25 mins. 18 questions with subsections to most. Very few pupils finished all.

NON-VERBAL 2: A lattice of 6 hexagons around a central hexagon. A pattern connecting all hexagons, apart from one with question mark. Select the most appropriate to go in this space. 12 minutes. 20 questions

---------- Break

Paper 2

COMPREHENSION: Two passages. Fictional test on Druid in search of magical fish. Non-fictional on Barcelona and buildings. 25/30 questions.

MISSING WORDS: Cloze tests. No words given, just letters and dashes of words missing from passage. Most children found quite hard to work out what words were appropriate. Example of words were traders, farming, robbers, clever, ample. Approx 25 to 40.

QUICK MATHS: About 12 minutes. About 40 questions. Fractions, ordering fractions, decimals, algebra, powers of e.g. x = 3 ½ what is 4x + 2

NON-VERBAL: 3d models of cubes connected together. 4 or 5 at top of page, some with markings on. Then a list of questions, each with a 2d arrangement of squares. The children had to say which of the 3d models was the 2d drawing a view. 20 questions.

(Notes: Information based on postings and correspondence from various parents/children)


KING EDWARD EXAM NOV 2007

Comprehension: Boy escaping from palace guards. 12 Questions. Multiple Choice. Sats level 5 readers found easy, level 4 considered hard.

Proofreading: Spelling, punctuation (no speech again), English grammar. Passage was hard but mistakes weren't. Not the basis of a comprehension this year.

Non-verbal: Several 3d models of cubes (think Lego) given at top of page. Then list of 2d views. Had to say from which 3d model the 2d view came. 20 questions.

25 Mins Maths: Data interpretation. Routes, timetables. Speed/time problems. Money problems. Fraction problems. Test their ability to read an interpret information. approx. 18 questions with subsections to most. Very few children finished this section this year.


---------Break


12 Mins Vocabulary: 56 words. So much easier on time. Don't know if it was easier words. Many children did claim to know at least half the words (more than previous years). Sample words: altitude (back in from 3 years ago), trivial, emerge, pigment, covet, antiquity, tranquil, drought, passive, incision, bewildered, device.

13 mins Missing Word: Several passages with omitted words. Choice of 3 to fill in . Best fit in context. 10 words per passage and 7 passages. Words not complex e.g. choose from 'air, summit or peak' but close in meaning. Varied passages including one from Northern Lights by Philip Pullman so that will give you an idea of level.

http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/book.php?id=24

12 Mins Quick maths: This was reintroduced, having been taken out previous year. Anything from 20 to 50 questions. Guess probably 40. Fractions, ordering fractions, decimals, algebra, powers off. Most children found impossible to finish. Very demanding on time but suited to good arithmeticians.

Non -verbal: 6 hexagons arranged around a central hexagon. A pattern connecting all, with a ? on one blank one. Select the most appropriate to replace the blank from a choice of n (not sure how many.) 12 minutes. 20 questions. Many good at NVR found it relatively easy.

(Notes: Caveat - this is not necessarily a wholly accurate description of the exam. Many children/parents gave different feedback of the exam and based timings on the most frequently appearing time.)



KING EDWARD EXAM NOV 2006
Paper1
10 mins proof reading/comprehension – passage wasn't very long but very descriptive. (proof reading section was about a forest in Sweden)
2 Mins word recognition with definitions - 12 synonyms in 2 mins beginning with re
25 mins Non verbal reasoning & Maths (90 questions ) (Maths Multiple Choice)
10 mins (81 antonyms beginning with ST and C.)


------------15 mins break

Paper 2
10 mins non verbal (possibly 70 Bugs)
25 minutes Maths - (Maths more general Maths & Problem Solving as opposed to Arithmetic - 35 questions in 25 mins - apparently there were some equations not the simple type.)
15 Mins Comprehension & Vocab - answering questions on comprehension (which required remembering the passage in descriptive detail in Paper 1)and finally the vocab and meaning

The instructions for all of the tests are on a tape – similar to SATs


KING EDWARD EXAM NOV 2005
Paper1
10 mins proof reading/comprehension – (about Polynesians on Easter Island and how they chopped down all the trees to make canoes) taken from http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/042.html
10 mins word recognition with definitions (Synonyms 80 words in 10 mins) (some children looked at the quantity, knew they couldn’t finished so just guessed the lot- result disaster!)
25 mins maths and verbal reasoning

------------15 mins break
Paper 2
10 mins non verbal (inc bugs evolving into new bugs)
20 minutes maths
15 Mins answering questions on proof reading and finding the meaning of made up words. Proof reading is correcting errors in work. The errors may be spelling, punctuation, or grammatical.

Child said that the words were hard - ie meaning of words included - inaugurate and pompous.
Maths - some was easy and some was hard. For example, how long did it take to fill different sizes of containers? Something like that.
non verbal had bugs evolving into new bugs
In this exam the children were given a passage to read during the 1st paper which was taken away. They then had to answer questions on it in the 2nd paper at the end.
(Note: The instructions for all of the tests are on a tape – similar to SATs)
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