11 Plus Exams Forum

I know last years paper had Maths questions that were multiple choice, my DS is also doing QM on the 1st ,all I'm doing now for pratice with him is various Maths stuff, as he found the KE exams Maths content, difficult.

bad1min2ton wrote:Hi all,
can anybody tell me a brief exam content over the last 2 years for Queen Mary's Grammar School for Boys in Walsall and the pass mark if you can as I am preparing for the Dec 1 2011 one Thankx lol.

doing same: I thought that QM tests are set by durham CEM and so similar to KEGS. sample sheet suggests the same but with minor differences. I guess you should focus on the areas that were perceived difficult in the KEGS test if your DS took this. Don't know the pass mark but I hear that proportionally its harder to get it than a KEGS school. Happy to be told otherwise. We are practising all areas except NVR as DSs are fine with this.

We had some info a couple of years ago on how far down the list they went to make offers, from which you can calculate that the pass mark is roughly between KE Aston and KE Five Ways. Figures in the B'ham Post for first preferences indicate the same thing.

Mike

My ds1 sat this exam 2 years ago. It was very, very similar in structure to the KE Grammar exams (now Birmingham consortium). Obviously not the same questions

So I would check the sticky again on this forum.

He actually found it more difficult than KE, and came out feeling he had failed, but when we got his scores, we saw he would have still easily been offered a place. However, he had attained a higher preference choice.

bad1min2ton wrote:Hi all,
can anybody tell me a brief exam content over the last 2 years for Queen Mary's Grammar School for Boys in Walsall

I doubt it. But, take heart, if you've prepared for the Birmingham grammars then you've also prepared for QM and there's little more you can do.

bad1min2ton wrote:and the pass mark if you can as I am preparing for the Dec 1 2011 one Thankx lol.

Pass mark? It's hard to give an answer which is meaningful, for me it helped to think of it like this - last year of 894 applicants 202 were offered places. Not such bad odds really.

It's a very good school, best of luck.

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Dibble

Last offer made to 202nd placed candidate rather than 202 offers made, I think - many of the 202 will have been offered a higher preference so won't actually be made an offer by QM.

Either way, an offer to the 202nd candidate out of 894 implies a pass mark of 222. Not entirely coincidentally (but it's encouraging that they match), 413 first preferences for 96 places also implies a pass mark of 222. But Dibble has it right - it's best to think of it as needing to be in the top 200 of about 800-900 candidates.

Mike

Thanks for the replies and advice but can anyone answer my 1st question?By the way,I am a child not an adult

bad1min2ton wrote:Thanks for the replies and advice but can anyone answer my 1st question?

The “I doubt it” was not as flippant as it may have sounded.
As Queen Mary’s use very similar exams you could look at the sticky post at the top of this forum called “B/Ham KE Exam Content 2005-2011” you might even feel that looking at the content from two or three years ago would be useful but I wouldn’t really recommend more than a quick look *and* if I could just quote this bit at you?

“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.”

So I guess I’m saying. You don’t have time to practice exactly what might come up *and* no one can really predict exactly what might come up anyway.

Some advice you didn’t ask for...
A few nights good sleep before the exam and a calm and confident attitude are worth any number of months “preparation” that you’d care to imagine.

Your experience in the test may feel a little weird and you absolutely must be prepared for this. You probably won’t have time to answer all the questions and even if you do, you may be unsure about many of your answers.*DO* * NOT* *GIVE* *UP*. The test is very hard – but it’s hard for everyone, not just for you. You don’t have to reach a preset ‘pass mark’ you just have to beat the other candidates. For example, in last year’s test if you’d answered 125 of the 181 questions correctly (around 2/3rds) you would have been ranked not 200th (which would still have got you a deserved place) but way up at 20th out of nearly 900. It can take a lot of guts and self belief to keep going – anyone would find that tough – stick with it!

Again, it's a very good school, best of luck.

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Dibble


PS
Please make sure you show this stuff to Dad, Mum or whoever looks after you, I’m sure they’ll tell you how much of it is worth listening too

Wow, that is really interesting. I have never heard it put like that before. Thanks.
It always thought that you would need to get about 90% or higher to get a place.