Where to stop ?

[berks_mum]

leanmeamum and Peridot, thank you for your posts. I will ignore the occasional ks3 questions that get thrown in some practice papers. Instead I will focus on ks2 basics and problem solving. Understading what is given and asked in wordy problems and the sequence of steps required to get to the answer, accuracy and then speed.

Do you know where I can find answers to the indie papers. Apart from MGS I didn't find any other answer sheets. NLC and Habs boys to start with.

[Peridot]

I seem to remember the Habs ones we had to just work out for ourselves. Not sure about others.

[leanmeamum]

l
Do you know where I can find answers to the indie papers. Apart from MGS I didn't find any other answer sheets. NLC and Habs boys to start with.

You have to work out all of the answers yourself. Don't worry if you get stuck on any - just post them on the forum

[Daogroupie]

Berks mum, which exams are you doing? I agree with Parent2013. Focusing on the actual exam formats of the schools you are applying to is the best approach. I have already posted on this. The schools are going in different directions and a scattergun approach will put you at a disadvantage when competing against those who have the format down pat and open that paper confident that they know what to do. The Sutton Mocks English results were terrible, yet the Maths results were great. Some students were getting 96% in Maths and 50's in the English. The highest mark in English was 81 from a student I know of. A English mark in the 60%'s was enough to get you in the top 5% of English results out of 1235 candidates. This was because Sutton had Cloze and A and S CEM that students sitting traditional English papers have not prepared for. It will be very interesting to see the Session B results now students know what to prepare for. But if that had been a real exam many very well prepared students would have not got a place as their English mark would have dragged them down. Prepare for the exams you are sitting for. There are plenty of parents on here to help you who have secured places in those schools for their dc's just this year. DG

[fatbananas]

Does a and s cem mean antonyms and synonyms?

[Daogroupie]

Yes!

[berks_mum]

We are doing CEM (berks consortium and bucks consortium) and will have to do CEM HBS (unclear job move).

What I don't know is,
1) The difficulty levels of berks-CEM, bucks-CEM and HBS-CEM (not second round) - for Maths. How do they compare with each other?
2) Will CEM Maths(any school) have long maths problems that are similar to Indie papers (difficulty level)
I understand these questions may not have very simple answers as CEM is unpredictable.

[Daogroupie]

CEM Maths is a series of short tests so no long Maths answers. Are you able to actually sit both Bucks and Berks CEM? DG

[berks_mum]

Bucks and Berks tests are on different dates and some areas in bucks/berks are in catchment of both berks and bucks schools.
I am not aware of any non catchment restrictions to sit the exam itself. For admissions, yes some schools have catchment restrictions.

My understanding of CEM was similar. Short, MC type of questions.

[Daogroupie]

Nothing to do with catchment. My understanding is that CEM wants to prevent students taking more than one CEM test. A parent I know was told by Redbridge admissions that if a student takes a Durham CEM test anywhere in the country then the results of the first test they take will be the only one to count. Redbridge clashes with Latymer but any student sitting Latymer can apply to Redbridge and their Latymer result will be used. Personally I think this might work for Latymer and Redbridge but is unworkable over the country. Especially as some schools are using different aspects of CEM, for example HBS is not using NVR. I know plenty of students last year who took Latymer and HBS and no results were shared. But just a heads up on this. It would be interesting to hear what Bucks admissions say about sitting more than one CEM test. DG