11 Plus Exams Forum

Please would someone kindly clear up some confusion about the CRGS test please?

I phoned the school in June and was told the test is a CEM (Combined English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Numerical Reasoning) test using a Multiple Choice Answer Paper where answers are marked with a straight line in a box of 5 possible answers.

Then online it says that there are just 1hr Maths and 1hr English tests, answers written 9in a the booklet and then a friend has told me that the CRGS test is the same as the CCHS test and is 50% for VR, 25% English and 25% Maths.

I've searched and searched the online advice but am still confused.
Please help!

Is this for the CSSE exam or CEM? I'm a bit confused to be honest

Colchester Royal Grammar School is part of the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE); the entrance test consists of two one-hour papers, English and Maths, with a few of the relevant 'reasoning' questions in each paper and a short writing exercise as part of the English.

The only CEM entrance test is the one for Chelmsford County High School for Girls.

I hope your friend isn't entering a DD for CCHS this year - what s/he has described is the pre-2015 entry CSSE test, also CCHS left the consortium about three years ago and administers their entrance test registration themselves.

The CRGS website states that the exam for the Sept 2017 entry is the CSSE 11 plus which is 2 papers of 1 hour each, maths and english. Further forward than that has not been announced yet. So I guess the question is, when you phoned CRGS and asked them about the exam and were told it was CEM, which year entry were you asking about? Either you have been told something totally incorrect (which sounds strange as the school staff are generally pretty clued up re the entry process) or maybe they are planning to switch to CEM in the future!? (In which case you know something I don't)
Your friend is definitely wrong and is describing the old exam, as ToadMum has said.