11 Plus Exams Forum

When the results come through next week, you may find that your child did pass didn't score in the top 120 (or whatever) for a school. I call this the 'Twilight Zone'. Don't panic...

That top 120 is the top 120 who ticked for that school. Chances are that they also ticked for the other 2 or 3 grammars, so will also have been included in the top 120 for those schools. Taking it to the extreme, there could as few as 40 children per school who actually take up the place, as they can't take up a place at more than one school.

It will all sort itself out come Allocations day, and you may well find that your child gets offered their first choice.

With some schools over the last few years, a pass is a guarantee that you've got a place (I'm thinking of Ribston), but of course, they may alter their marks this year to take account of this.

Exactly. Odds are that the same few kids are getting the top 120 slots in each school thanks to the tick all boxes thing, leaving lots of places (well, 3 each of them) up for grabs. Keep Calm! (says she, who didn't)

Thanks for the reminder, Capers !

DS came out smiling, though he thought the first test contained some questions he hadn't seen before but he calmly worked his way through them.

I've been fretting over this all afternoon! - my son said the first test had question types he hadn't seen before. As I tutored him with all the stuff I'd used with my daughter (GL, Daughtrey, Walsh etc) I'm feeling very responsible for this. But now we wait...

Hi Staycalm !
My DS gave me along explanation about the questions he hadn't seen before but in my exhausted state I failed to grasp the detail.
We went through a lot of practice papers at home, Letts, NFER, Daughtrey, IPS and old Pates papers, so I am not sure what we missed !
Fortunately he stayed calmand used his initiative !
Fingers crossed.....

Ds1 said that there had been a new format on the answer sheet(we all knew that was coming) and that there had been some questions he hadnt seen before however full instructions were given if you read them properly so shouldnt cause too many problems(I hope,fingers croseed etc )

Aaargh, new format on the answer sheet! Didn't hear about this.
Will resist temptation to wake sleeping son and ask him and go to bed myself.

Dont wake your son! The answer was given as a letter so the boxes were just a,b,c,d,and e. As long as they marked the right question they will be fine. This was new to ds as I had heard about it on here but couldnt get hold of any practice papers. We had discussed them though so hopefully he will be ok.

Oh thanks,we had practiced that sort of answer at some stage.
Sounds as if it could slow the thought process down a little though ?

DD also said there was a question type that she hadn't seen before and I'd sort of assumed she was talking about the second paper but on reflection she could well have meant the first one. After my initial panic it seems that it wasn't really the questions, just the way they were presented. Sounds as though letter series and number series were muddled up together - although not, according to DD letters and numbers within the same question. Which explains why they could all do it, but remembered it as different.

Is this what everyone else's DC said? Am not questioning DD anymore so can't ask! Think she has probably blocked the whole thing from her mind by now