Keep us posted! Comparison between old and new tests.

[Cheltfan]

No rich parents lol!

[Stressed?Moi?]

Awkward situation yesterday. I gave ds one of dd's old GL Assessment papers. Written on the back was dd's score from when she did it, and the date which she had a very high score. He seemed to baulk at it and didn't think he stood a chance which does his confidence no good as they are very competitive with each other. I assured him that it was fine, that dd only had vr to worry about "back in her day" and not non-vr, English and maths, that the paper was completed one week before her exam not 2 months, to try his best and not worry if he had a low score. He scored 94%. Dd got upset as she felt that it had put her down, and he was very hard to motivate thereafter as he felt he could "slacken off". I reminded him that he really didn't do very well in his mock and that he couldn't "take his foot off the pedal". I so wish they hadn't changed the format this year - but then I can't argue as I do think it was necessary and would be hypocritical of me to disagree with it. God parenting is difficult sometimes.

[Sunshine 11]

Well hopefully the new style 11 plus will mean that the naturally bright children of all backgrounds will pass and get a place, rather than just the ones whose parents can afford tutoring. As Mr Ellicott said, "Pate's isn't for rich kids".

Sadly I don't think the new style test will achieve this, from what I have read, although more free school meal children for example sat the test, less are getting places, so why is this ?

Perhaps because middle class families have a broader vocab, read with their children and ensure they have lots of stimulating books.

Perhaps because it has simply made tutoring happen earlier and for longer, this will support the education system of course as those who tutor will support teaching.

Perhaps because those children in indie schools have lower class to teacher ratios and so have more one to one attention and focussed teaching ? who knows....... whatever the reason, one thing is clear, no matter what they do it will never be a classless test and I doubt they will ever be able to fully tutor proof, it's just different !

[CKMum]

Awkward situation yesterday. I gave ds one of dd's old GL Assessment papers. Written on the back was dd's score from when she did it, and the date which she had a very high score. He seemed to baulk at it and didn't think he stood a chance which does his confidence no good as they are very competitive with each other. I assured him that it was fine, that dd only had vr to worry about "back in her day" and not non-vr, English and maths, that the paper was completed one week before her exam not 2 months, to try his best and not worry if he had a low score. He scored 94%. Dd got upset as she felt that it had put her down, and he was very hard to motivate thereafter as he felt he could "slacken off". I reminded him that he really didn't do very well in his mock and that he couldn't "take his foot off the pedal". I so wish they hadn't changed the format this year - but then I can't argue as I do think it was necessary and would be hypocritical of me to disagree with it. God parenting is difficult sometimes.

Agree - parenting is the most difficult job in the world - but the most rewarding! I am just trying not to repeat the mistakes of the previous generation, but making plenty of my own in the process! I am sure that your DS will do well and all the hard work and persuasion and nagging and... and... will pay off! Gearing myself up for getting DS#1 ready for Sept 2015.

[quest]

The same happened to my DD, but she said the CEM trial was considerably easier than the old test. Maybe it's a boy/girl thing?!

[/quote]

My older son took the old test last year and got 227 for STR (cut off was 210) , 128 for Crypt (cut off was 107.5) and was in the first 120 for Marlin. We decided on STR. My second son is taking the new exam in Sept 2014. As someone who spent over 200hours of my time to revise with my son last year and I have also spent over 180hours of my time revising the new style papers with my second time, I can say I have a good knowledge of materials covered in the exam. The older exam is much simpler than the new exam. There is so much to cover in the new exam. The math is extensive, it has topics in probabilty, statistics, algebra, sequences, geometry, shapes, lots of word problems etc. The English language paper based on CGP is also extensive,, there are very long comprehension passages , Cloze style questions, vocabs etc. The non verbal reason also has so many variations. One year is just not enough to cover all the materials. The exam is not about being brilliant and lazy. It is about being bright and studious. No amount of tutoring can make an average pass the exam. A child has to be above average to have any chance of getting in.

[quest]

Well hopefully the new style 11 plus will mean that the naturally bright children of all backgrounds will pass and get a place, rather than just the ones whose parents can afford tutoring. As Mr Ellicott said, "Pate's isn't for rich kids".

A bright child that did not spent enough time to go through practice materials may fail the exam. On the other hand, a child that is above average that spent lots of time getting used to the questions and solving them stands a better change of getting in. It is not so much about tutoring , it is about sitting down and tackling the hard maths questions, checking dictionary and thesaurus, reading long comprehension passages once and answering the questions without going back to reread the passage. Tutoring cannot teach a child how to solve 50 standard maths questions in under 50mins and scoring at least 85% at home. I do not think that it is about being rich or poor.

[MedievalBabe]

I am getting my dd to sit a "mock" and as a balance I am also going to get ds to also have a go. He has just finished Y7 at STR, so it will be interesting to see how he does in comparison to his sister. I am setting it up as exam conditions, but also to see if there are any holes to still fill.

I am using the CGP papers as a mock as I know there is no proper papers available. Would be interested in what others think about these papers especially if you have used the Bond papers as well.

[Tolstoy]

I did the old style VR with my eldest DC in Gloucs. I now have less than a month to prepare DC3 for the Bucks CEM. He has been in a french school for two years and has dyslexia. In that short space of time the older style would have been easier. Until he sits it I have no idea what to really expect but am thankful that the pass mark is lower in Bucks as it is fully selective. All I can see happening is tutoring will increase and the children who attend schools where the maths and English learning is extended to the higher levels will have a distinct advantage. Also the children coming from homes where they are encouraged to read, are read to and where an extensive vocabulary is used.

Until all primary schools are equal and they are once more allowed to prepare pupils for the test the great divide will continue, especially in Gloucs where there are so many children applying for so few places.

[MedievalBabe]

Did the CGP mocks today with Dd and Ds. Ds made out it was easy, finishing in plenty of time for all parts, huffing and puffing when he had to wait for the time to finish each section. Now I have marked them and Ds got 80% overall between the 2 papers, Dd got 65% across the 2 papers. They both found the comprehension hard especially the tight time.

[CKMum]

Well, we are now partway through our DS#1's 11+ journey. So far the maths has been fine, his vocab is good, but needs to be better I think (there are some mighty difficult words that they are expected to know!) and fortunately he seems to find the Non-VR straightforward.

I think my biggest challenge is to balance between getting him the 'read the question twice through carefully' and 'don't rush to answer' with him being aware that there are timings for each section. We still have a long way to go, but I am hoping that getting some good habits in quickly will bode well for the future. Biggest challenge so far is definitely having him read the question carefully enough!

How are other Year 5's getting on with the new test?