11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi,

My son is sitting the 11+ in September and we know it is CEM style but he has some worries about the actual look of the paper (if that makes sense). Mostly he wants to know: is he allowed to make notes on the paper and is it one of those answer papers where you shade in the boxes or do you write your answer in or do you circle or underline etc etc etc?

We are both a bit nervous to be honest and not sure what to actually expect.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Mich

This explains the procedure:

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/grammar-schools" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In regards to the test it states:

Candidates will only be required to sit one test to be considered for a place at a school that forms part of The Grammar Schools in Birmingham or Warwickshire Authority. There are 2 exams of approximately 45 minutes duration each. Papers will be divided into smaller individually timed sections that test:
Verbal ability
Non-verbal ability
Reading comprehension
Numerical ability

Candidates will record their answers on a separate answers sheet and most of the questions take a multiple choice format. Marks will be standardised to take account of differences in age and then added together.


I hope this helps.

That is very interesting that they don't regard Reading Comprehension as part of the Verbal Ability paper. I thought it was part of CEM VR and not a separate section in itself. So do I need to stop calling the DAO/SW Herts CEM a Verbal ability paper? Just as I had adjusted myself to these new terms!

Is there any other regions that split it out like this? I was sure that everything to do with English was termed Verbal Ability. DG

My understanding is that Reading Comprehension is separate as the verbal ability is where the superfluous words, cloze, antonyms and synonyms comes in.

As i said before there are so many continuous changes going on all the time.
I guess due to the number of children taking the exams they have to try to find ways to keep us poor parents on our toes!!!!