kent maths paper this year
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Bexley Mum 2
- Posts: 851
- Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2007 9:55 pm
- Location: Bexley
His school doesn't do any work for the 11+. My son is top of his year for maths and gifted and talented so I would presume he does some year 7 work (I hope so anyway!). He went to a tutorial centre in the run up to the 11+ (more as a way of boosting his confidence than anything else) and they did some algebra with him. However, it seemed to panic him because he hadn't done it at school so I didn't bother trying to do any at home with him because my whole approach to preparing him for the tests was to boost his confidence and keep him calm. He can put enough pressure on himself without any help from me! He did say there were quite a few algebra questions on the kent maths paper and he just left them (at which point I started to panic that we hadn't put more effort in with this subject!).
It makes me so cross that the playing field is so uneven because, not only are many children tutored (some to within an inch of their life), but the tutored children, like my son, have the opportunity to learn about topics like algebra, VR and NVR that clever, but untutored, children don't have. We can't stop tutoring/preparation, but we can give everyone a fairer chance by testing in subjects like maths and english that are studied at school. The headmaster at my eldest son's grammar says that he can spot the heavily-tutored children a mile off because their highest score is always in NVR as he reckons that's the one that can be boosted most by tutoring. I always think it's like giving a crossword to two people - one of whom does a crossword every day and one of whom has never seen one before, and then saying that the one who has practiced is cleverer because they did it better! I'm also cross that I've been dragged into the tutoring/preparation game because I don't want my children competing on unequal terms. Now I'm ranting, sorry!!
It makes me so cross that the playing field is so uneven because, not only are many children tutored (some to within an inch of their life), but the tutored children, like my son, have the opportunity to learn about topics like algebra, VR and NVR that clever, but untutored, children don't have. We can't stop tutoring/preparation, but we can give everyone a fairer chance by testing in subjects like maths and english that are studied at school. The headmaster at my eldest son's grammar says that he can spot the heavily-tutored children a mile off because their highest score is always in NVR as he reckons that's the one that can be boosted most by tutoring. I always think it's like giving a crossword to two people - one of whom does a crossword every day and one of whom has never seen one before, and then saying that the one who has practiced is cleverer because they did it better! I'm also cross that I've been dragged into the tutoring/preparation game because I don't want my children competing on unequal terms. Now I'm ranting, sorry!!
Just wanted to say that my child's strongest subject is maths and although she found the maths paper okay, it was her lowest score. This was a surprise as her NVR is not perfect but she got 140 in both VR and NVR. She sat the Kent test. Curious as maths is the one most people in our area have got their lowest scores in....
kent maths paper this year
I wonder how low the maths pass mark will be this September if the test date is moved from Jan09??
I had a child do the 11+ in 2006.We mostly concentrated on covering parts of the maths curriculum which we knew had not been covered at school.......namely Algebra and gaps in more advanced Geometry questions.
I now have another child doing the 11+........the last thank goodness!
We are now trying to cover the missing 'Gaps' in time for the new September date.Having lost 3months of school curriculum as well.
One assumes the examiners have already written the maths paper,which will include maths not yet taught and will include subjects that would have been taught in the lost 3months?I cannot imagine they are organised enough to amend the paper to reflect the changes?!In my area the maths paper has always been the deciding factor of a pass or a fail.
That every child is in the same "Boat"is the defence for this but the pass mark will surely have to be very low?
As quite a few schools have objected to the late changes, it is up to Ed Balls to decide our fate
I had a child do the 11+ in 2006.We mostly concentrated on covering parts of the maths curriculum which we knew had not been covered at school.......namely Algebra and gaps in more advanced Geometry questions.
I now have another child doing the 11+........the last thank goodness!
We are now trying to cover the missing 'Gaps' in time for the new September date.Having lost 3months of school curriculum as well.
One assumes the examiners have already written the maths paper,which will include maths not yet taught and will include subjects that would have been taught in the lost 3months?I cannot imagine they are organised enough to amend the paper to reflect the changes?!In my area the maths paper has always been the deciding factor of a pass or a fail.
That every child is in the same "Boat"is the defence for this but the pass mark will surely have to be very low?
As quite a few schools have objected to the late changes, it is up to Ed Balls to decide our fate
Interesting point about NVR marks being highest for tutored children.
My son was not tutored and his marks were:
Bexley - Maths 123, VR 115, English 118, NVR 107
Kent - Maths 127, VR 134, NVR 111
NVR significantly lower in both cases and reason for failing in Kent.
Son's year 5 non-verbal CAT result NPR 91 which I think puts him in the top 10%.
It does seem that professional tuition has an unfair impact on results.
Perhaps this is partly the reason for Bexley dropping NVR next year?
My son was not tutored and his marks were:
Bexley - Maths 123, VR 115, English 118, NVR 107
Kent - Maths 127, VR 134, NVR 111
NVR significantly lower in both cases and reason for failing in Kent.
Son's year 5 non-verbal CAT result NPR 91 which I think puts him in the top 10%.
It does seem that professional tuition has an unfair impact on results.
Perhaps this is partly the reason for Bexley dropping NVR next year?
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ashfordmum
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:59 pm
NVR score and tutoring
Hello - new to the forum but wanted to add my tuppence to this thread. My daughter failed her Kent Test. She was not tutored at all, did a handful of practise papers at home. Her scores were NVR 135, VR 125, Maths 108. I don't think children can be tutored to pass the NVR test. My understanding is that it tests their abilty to assimilate new ideas and 'think outside the box.' Even looking at the answer sheet I couldn't explain some of the answers! I think it's more likely that tutoring will impact the Maths score. Some of the Maths concepts tested in the Kent Test aren't covered in schools until later in Y6. Perhaps this explains the paucity of Maths passes? 
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Bexley Mum 2
- Posts: 851
- Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2007 9:55 pm
- Location: Bexley
Ashford Mum - don't agree at all. I started doing NVR papers with my eldest son in the summer holidays before the 11+ - he was dreadful! But after we'd done a few practice papers he got the hang of it and ended up with a really good score in the Bexley 11+. There was a much more marked and rapid improvement in his NVR scores during our practice sessions than when we practiced VR or Maths. So much of it is down to technique - understanding that you can quickly eliminate 3 of the 5 possible answers and understanding the type of thing you are looking for (is it a mirror image, upside down etc etc) and getting a feel for the very limited amount of time you have for each question.
No doubt coaching and tutoring can improve familiarisation, technique and speed for NVR. However, it has been my understanding that NVR is supposed to be the least "tutorable" of the three tested subjects, and relies most on inherent ability. There has been a recent thread somewhere dicussing the purpose of NVR.
I also feel that NVR results can be significantly improved by 'coaching'. My dd sat the Bexley 11+ in Nov 2006 and attended a tutor group for a couple of months to become familiarised with the types of questions likely to appear on the NVR/VR papers.
The man that ran it said that he knew of a'highly selective' school that had used VR/NVR entrance exams and selected only the 'best of the best'. However, it had become apparent once they were at the school that some student's ability was not matching their outstanding test results, and that the reason was probably due to intensive coaching (hours of practice over many evenings a week). The school has now had to introduce a written english paper as part of its entrance exam to try to differentiate between those who are highly able and those that have received extensive coaching in how to pass the VR/NVR papers!
The man that ran it said that he knew of a'highly selective' school that had used VR/NVR entrance exams and selected only the 'best of the best'. However, it had become apparent once they were at the school that some student's ability was not matching their outstanding test results, and that the reason was probably due to intensive coaching (hours of practice over many evenings a week). The school has now had to introduce a written english paper as part of its entrance exam to try to differentiate between those who are highly able and those that have received extensive coaching in how to pass the VR/NVR papers!
