Preparing for the 2007 test
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EssexMum
Preparing for the 2007 test
Hello
My daughter is preparing to take the 11+ this year. She has been getting good scores on the Bond 10-11 papers. We decided to let her try an actual past paper for English ( the 2003 paper) and an NFER Nelson VR paper which I got from CSSE. She scored 72% and 73% respectively. What I really want to know is are these scores ok at this stage with 7 months to go? I know from other posts that she will need to be getting 80%+ in the actual exam. Many thanks.
My daughter is preparing to take the 11+ this year. She has been getting good scores on the Bond 10-11 papers. We decided to let her try an actual past paper for English ( the 2003 paper) and an NFER Nelson VR paper which I got from CSSE. She scored 72% and 73% respectively. What I really want to know is are these scores ok at this stage with 7 months to go? I know from other posts that she will need to be getting 80%+ in the actual exam. Many thanks.
Your daughter's scores sound pretty good - my daughter was scoring 60-70% in all 3 subjects this time last year and she did pass, although I must add she had a tutor from Easter up until the exam.
My advice would be to aim as high as possible in practice papers although in reality the actual exam scores may not need to be over 80% to gain a Grammar school place, the papers vary in difficulty from year to year and everything is dependent on how other children do in the exam. My daughter did not score above 80% in any one subject although her Maths & VR scores were good. Please don't take this as an example though - I get the impression 2006 was a low scoring year generally.
My advice would be to aim as high as possible in practice papers although in reality the actual exam scores may not need to be over 80% to gain a Grammar school place, the papers vary in difficulty from year to year and everything is dependent on how other children do in the exam. My daughter did not score above 80% in any one subject although her Maths & VR scores were good. Please don't take this as an example though - I get the impression 2006 was a low scoring year generally.
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Eric
Re: Preparing for the 2007 test
EssexMum wrote:Hello
My daughter is preparing to take the 11+ this year. She has been getting good scores on the Bond 10-11 papers. We decided to let her try an actual past paper for English ( the 2003 paper) and an NFER Nelson VR paper which I got from CSSE. She scored 72% and 73% respectively. What I really want to know is are these scores ok at this stage with 7 months to go? I know from other posts that she will need to be getting 80%+ in the actual exam. Many thanks.
Low seventies at this stage is quite good. What usually happens in the actual exam situation is a different matter all together. General opinion is that children score about 5-6% lower on average in the actual exam for obvious reasons.
However, parents can do a great deal not only to ease the exam pressure, but also to help them get equipped with a degree of exam methodology, which could mean raising the score by up to 8-10% and more that compansating for the exam jitters. Be warned though, over elaborating here could confuse the child and have an adverse effect.
As far as the 80%+ needed for success is concerned. This is totaly relative. First it depends on your choice of school - cut off point for some schools could be a lot lower than that. More importantly, it depends on the year, in terms of both the average success level of the entrants and the degree of difficulty the tests are set to.
For example: there have indeed been years when you would need an average score of 80%+ to gain admission to Chelmsford County High for girls. But there were also years when the cut off score was as low as 71%.
I hope this helps a little. Your daughter seems to be doing really well at this stage. Keep practising and when you do a mock exam make sure to do it under test conditions (ie timed, no distractions or interference etc.)
If I sounded a bit patronising please forgive me, but 11+ have practically taken over my whole life in the last few years.
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Guest
It's like asking how long is a piece of string as to what score will 'pass' and what won't. It does vary year on year and depends on the scores of the other candidates. I agree that a mock test nearer the actual date will be a good idea. Just aim to improve on the already good scores. My son only scored above 80% on the maths paper this year and was offered a grammar school place.
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EssexMum
