11 Plus Exams Forum

So, DD will be sitting in September, 3rd child to sit test of mine, and maybe I have been a bit lax as out of the 3 she is by far the brightest. However sat her down today to do her first full maths GL paper and she got 62%!!

She recently took CAT4s at school and did what I thought was quite well, maybe I am disillusioned in thinking the brightest of my 3 (the other 2 passed) shouldn't have any trouble, her teacher said she will be fine, but maybe it's a bit too much pressure being the last one to take it, any tips??

Well, first off, don't focus on the score. Have a look at what didn't go well. Did she run out of time? Are there topics she is unfamiliar with (eg she hasn't covered at school)? Was she thrown by the wording/style of questions?

I would first cover "gaps" - the topics she hasn't done at school yet, or areas of obvious weakness. Then move onto question/paper technique.

In one sense a low first mock can be a good think as a bright kid will learn from their errors quickly, and she should see her scores increasing each week, reinforcing that any work now is worthwhile.

Thank you, it has really upset her (I wasn't sure 62% was a pass) she's distraught, thinks her siblings will laugh if she doesn't pass.
She says she got bored half way through and couldn't be bothered, the last 10 questions she got wrong as she couldn't be bothered, hoping she's just hot and bothered today and didn't really try.....roll on 8th September when it's all over

OK, to bring some perspective to this.

I assume this is the first GL paper out of 8.

62% is actually quite good,depending on the intensity of previous prep.

Use the first 4 papers as genuine familiarisation(but timed) going through meticulously any errors and the last 4 as timed tests under exam conditions.

DC will easily make at least 20% increase in the last 4 papers in raw scores without even breaking a sweat.

Thank you, these are past booklets I had for the others, some are quite old as DD is now end of year 9, but it was the maths paper so am hoping the questions don't massively change style?
Should I buy new packs? This was maths pack 6

stuffy wrote:DD is now end of year 9,

EH... now I am confused.

Call me a fool but I'm easily confused.

are you saying that your eldest DD is in year 9 and your yougest is year 5-6.

That would make sense

GL papers have not changed in years.

salsa wrote:GL papers have not changed in years.

The same with Bond books and test papers, should anyone want to know - apart from the new titles they've published, everything else is the same material as before (that's going at least 5-6 years back).

stuffy wrote:Thank you, these are past booklets I had for the others, some are quite old as DD is now end of year 9, but it was the maths paper so am hoping the questions don't massively change style?
Should I buy new packs? This was maths pack 6

You mean it was pack 2 familiarisation test 6 published by GL Assessment? There are 8 familiarisation papers which have not been changed in years. The test has changed though since your year 9 daughter did it. Have you read the familiarisation document on the Kent CC website in the school admissions part of the website?

It would be easier for you to get some clear answers to your questions if you were a little more precise in what you are asking.

If this was a real paper, 62% under correctly timed conditions always would have been and still would be a pass. But it's not a real paper and we don't know how the familiarisation papers compare in overall difficulty with the real thing. But my gut reaction would be that, if it was timed and under exam conditions, 62% on that paper would definitely be a child who could pass if they worked as well as that on the day.