11 Plus Exams Forum

It was the VR paper, am really gutted for her. It's the one that really counts.

She had her heart set on grammar.
She told me she had finished it all when she came out because she didn't want me to be upset. I'm not upset with her at all, even if she only gets one mark I'll still be so proud of all the work she put in. But at the same time I am absolutely gutted that she won't get the school she wanted.

My heart goes out to your DD. This is why this system seems so unfair; it decides your fate on the performance of one day. You are right to be proud of her. Just keep showing her that you love her and are proud of her no matter what. In the grand scheme of things exams are neither here nor there. I'm sure she'll do well whereever she goes.

This doesn't necessarily mean that your DD will not get a place at grammar school. Yes, the verbal reasoning accounts for 50% of the overall mark but she may be able to get high marks in the english and maths to compensate for this. My DS sat his 11+ last year and told me that he couldn't answer the very first question of the english paper! There were also a couple of maths questions that he missed out as well. This wasn't the best of starts and I felt that probably his chances of getting a place were not so good based on what he had told me. However, he started at CRGS in September and has settled in really well. Please do not give up hope. If this year is anything to go by, there will be lots of movement before all the places are allocated next year.

Oh dear, woeisme. Did she just overlook the page, or did she attempt the questions, give up and move on?

Whatever the answer, it could be important to find out what her score was on the questions she did complete. If that was very high, an appeal panel might look more charitably on the situation - if you have to appeal, that is.

In Bucks you can request a simple "re-mark" (for when a child worries that they didn't rub out an answer or two properly, for example), or what is known as a "re-mark and analysis" (it costs £25.00) where something like this is known to have happened. It would give more insight into how it affected her final score.

You might like to call Essex admissions and ask if they offer a similar facility? If so, ask about the timescales for it, because time is very tight after 1st March.

Hi, one of my pupils left out 20 questions two years ago. He is now happy in SHSB. He was miserable until March as he "knew" that he had failed. Another child had not really prepared properly, as he was new to the country, and he only scored 57/80 in the VR, he has been in KEGS for a few years now and still passed quite highly (placed in the 30s).

If she didn't get to the last page, please take heart from this. Fingers crossed that she will have done well enough.

Thank you!

Your replies are much appreciated.
I won't look at an appeal if she doesn't get in, I think it would be too stressful for her and I'm not sure you can appeal in Essex for anything other than medical or really extenuating circumstances.

I'm pretty convinced she han't got in, her scores on her last mock test were good (88% english, 72% maths and 68% VR- didn't finish the VR paper in her mock either) but they do tend to drop their scores on the day so with a whole page left out I think it's pretty safe to say she won't have secured a place.

Also, it looks like the numbers of girls taking the tests was really high this year so I suspect the cutoff marks will be high this year.

She is bright but a plodder, so really good in class work etc, not so good in a timed situation as she panics a bit and revisits too much. Am incredibly proud of her but will be "bigging up" the two local schools we put down.

We had a cuddle tonight and I've reiterated it doesn't matter, she'll still go to a lovely school etc etc.

Am going to have to avoid the uber family at the school gates on March 1st though!

Sorry, to clarify, she had gone through the paper and circled the questions she knew would take time, worked through the quicker ones and then panicked and went blank. The ones that took the time were all on one page as far as I can make out and she thnks there were 8 pages.

Not too sure how accurate that is though, at first she said 14 questions left out then said it was one page out of eight and could have been 10 questions.

Oh well. Naff all to be done now.

On a personal note, DD sat her 11+ with a broken finger. She only really wanted to go to Chelmsford out of all the grammars. When we finally got the results we had spent so long convincing her that her second choice was marvellous that she was disappointed that she had passed. We were not alone in this as her friend felt that she had done so badly that she was sure not to have made SHSG. As it was both girls were given their first choices but it was a couple of weeks before they were happy with that choice.

So, in short, don't give up hope yet.

My daughter took the exam last year and said that for VR, she somehow found she was one answer off on the answer sheet (how she managed it, I don't know). She then said she had to re-trace her steps and rubbed out a whole load of answers and re-did them. Then for maths, she said she had left out one page. She came out crying and said she had failed. Turns out it was just her. She did very well and went off to the grammar that she really wanted. I know it sounds as if we are all trying to comfort you and you probably feel hopeless (I felt very sick fo three months everytime I thought about it). Worse still, we had only put the 2 grammars down and fudged the the third choice by not sending in an extra form. We were so confident of her we only put down 3 choices rather than using up all 6, the rationale being that she would try and secure scholarship and go elsewhere / boarding school if she did not make it. Stupidly risky at that time but it all turned out well.

Hope everything turns out well for you too.

This is exactly what happened to my DD last year. She desperately needed the toilet, couldn't concentrate on VR and missed out at least the last page. She came out bright red in the face and wouldn't tell me what was wrong until she got in the car. It was heatbreaking, I felt so guilty for having put her through it all - in fact, tears in my eyes now as I think about it. It was a very long wait until March 1st and I was on the computer at midnight to get the results. But, it worked out OK - she managed 52/80 in VR and got 2nd choice WHSG (1st choice had been Chelmsford). I know you will worry about this until the results come out, but please know that it's not all over - your DD won't have been the only one who didn't finish. Fingers crossed that you have happy news in March. Pixie x