King Edward birmingham

[Guest]

Consortium of Selective Schools Essex

[Guest]

They say that the Birmingham tests have some surprise items - anyone know what these are so that our children are not so surprised on the day?

I know that they have vocab tests and a comprehension. Is the maths easy, but you need to be quick?

Thanks for all your help

[GUest3]

Last year there was 50 Maths questions to be done in 25 minutes. No algebra to speak of (this info is via my son), the questions were of mixed difficulty throughout, but my son said there was nothing he could not answer. Multiple choice by the way.

[Guest]

Oh, I had no idea that the questions were multiple choice. That seems much better, as my son is a devil for writing too quickly and getting all his spelling muddled.

Thanks for that.

[Farooq]

Hi all

As a follow up to this topic I checked the website for the King Edwards Foundation where it specifies the format of the examination. The test consists of Verbal Reasoning, Non Verbal Reasoning, Maths, Reading and Comprehension. The tests are all multiple choice and apparently they send a "sample" upon completing registration. Hope this helps!!

[KenR]

Hi All,

You may be interested to know that the exam supplier for the Foundation Grammar School Exams (not the KES Independent School Exam) has changed. This used to be NFER Nelson, the company that provide sample papers in the shops.

This year they have switched supplier to The University of Durham, Curriculum, Evaluation & Management Centre url

http://www.intuproject.org/entrance/entrance.asp

I'm afraid there are no sample papers but you will get idea of the services and type of approach they offer schools when setting 11+ exam questions from the site.

It is common knowledge that the schools were unhappy with the old 11+ tests and the fact that children could be very heavily tutored to pass the exams. The make up of the new tests is meant to make it more difficult to tutor children to pass.

Hope this helps.

[Prospective KE Dad]

That is a really useful find Ken.

Thanks

[Guest]

My daughter goes to Camp Hill school and there are some kids there who were tutored by independent schools. They got in because the schools did little else in the final two years except tutor to pass sats and 11+. A lot of these kids struggle very badly at grammar school and may have been better staying in the independent sector as their self esteem must take a big bashing. Hopefully this new test will eliminate this bias towards independent schools as it hardly seems fair that bright kids from state schools lose out because they have been following a more balanced curriculum. The work at Camp hill can be very difficult at times and it is relentless, so be prepared!

Good luck for the test! (by the way, my daughter is not in the lower years at the school and did the test when it was NFER)

[Guest]

the king edward exam on november 05, will consist of non-verbal reasoning, verbal reasoning, english comprehension and maths. so be prepared lol, my sista's taking da exam angles of parrallel lines, straight lines and angles in a trainale will definately cum up!
so gud luk!

[Nunkey]

Re KenR's posting - isn't this somewhat what at odds with the current info on the KE website which, whilst discouraging tutoring, still strongly implies the use of conventional selection tests (VR etc) and goes as far to state that "A range of publications designed to assist preparation for school admission tests are available from leading bookshops. Suitable practice papers are multiple choice style tests that cover Verbal Reasoning, Non Verbal Reasoning. Maths and Reading Comprehension."

I'm puzzled, because I have been preparing my kids for this kind of conventional test and I'm wondering if there is any point in pursuing this if indeed the approach has changed as Ken suggests. I'm also now far more uncertain about the value of private tuition that I've been considering. Don't get me wrong though - I think it will be great if the outcome is that bright kids from state school backgrounds get in at the expense of the private school crammers whose terminally middle class parents want to stop paying when their kids are 11 and so they can sponge off a state that they've probably spent most of thier lives avoiding paying tax to by employing highly paid accountants..............etc etc. To be honest I'd feel a lot better if the whole system was scrapped - I'm appalled that these state schools, funded by many hard working class families whose disadvantaged kids will never stand a chance of getting in, are allowed to be so elitist - it's like going back to the 1950s and is a total anachronism! Glad that's off my chest, but theres more..... I also resent the fact that in order to get the best I can for my kids I have to resort to this scrapping around for information.

Now can someone please answer my original point - it should be easy - those families whose kids are taking the exam next weekend should have received their sample papers (according to the website) - don't these give us clue to what the new format is? Please let us know. Unlikley to happen, because there is a clearly a conspiracy rooted in the english class system which will ensure that every advantage will go to those who are already better placed....but like the Murphy's I'm not bitter....and I case you're wondering what my motives might be in my (almost certainly futile) attempts to send my daughters to these institutions it's simple...know your enemy!