Toughest 11+ Maths papers

[Daogroupie]

So what papers are you using for English and CEM? DG

[Catseye]

Also not being from the area, does anyone have any idea what constitutes a good enough mark for entry. Just curious.

Thanks

For MGS, 50-60% is sufficient for non-bursary places depending on the difficulty of the set questions as well the overall ability of the cohort(there is significant variation in the difficulty of the papers year to year depending on which Master has set the questions)

70-90% for bursary places.

SPGS,Habs, Withington Girls(WGS) are also ridiculously hard.

The consortium papers are relatively straightforward imo.

We also used ISEB 13+ Common Exam question books for the 11+.

[Northdad]

Thanks for those tips Catseye.

DG, I don't handle the English myself but For NR/VR/English CEM we are using Bond CEM, FPTP, CGP. Various other things for std Eng. Tips on English also welcome but probably for another post as we are on the Maths part of the forum.

Thanks again.

[11+pass]

CEM Maths papers are very different to the independent schools maths papers. My DD is in Year 6 at an independent girl's school. She sat 11+ exams for both independent schools and grammar schools. With the CEM papers, the child is extremely time pressured. There's probably 10-20 seconds per question. Whereas with the independent school papers, my DD found the maths papers more manageable. There are a lot of logic questions towards the end of the paper but she was fine with those.

[Northdad]

Thanks for this 11+pass. Now that we are getting into CEM mode it's becoming increasingly clear that it's a game of two halves. Both for English and Maths. It doesn't feel fair to put DD through two entirely different paths, but that's the way it is.

To look at it more positively, I'm hoping that focus on speed and accuracy will eventually highlight all of the areas where DD is less than 100% confident/able so we can work on these. (same with Vocab etc for English).

I'm also hoping that any resulting increased accuracy will be of some benefit come January's Indie exams.

Is this your experience?

Thank you.

[Catseye]

The impression I get from the little I know of CEM is it gives a good grounding for the Indie exams-I would concentrate on CEM until state 11+ are over then move on to the Indie prep.

Also as an addendum to the above get the Primary and Junior books of the UKMC for the maths and if English is not your thing get the ISEB English 13+ Common Entrance Exam books they have(did have?) two levels of potential answer suggestion and mark schemes.

The 13+ CEE for maths and English are not too hard for top end(top 50) 11+ Indie Schools since for 11+ there is no testing of other subjects like the sciences,humanities or languages.

[11+pass]

Northdad, I totally understand you that it feels unfair to put your DD through two very different paths. Unfortunately there is no other way out unless if you decide not to sit the Indie exams after the grammar school results come out in October.
If it helps, we were in your situation last year this time. My DD got a lot of homework from her indie school and it was too much for her to keep on top of and do all the extra work needed for the external exams she sat. To be honest, we only focused on CEM style papers till September. Once the grammar school exams were over we starting preparing for the Indie exams which were in January of this year. My DD definitely benefitted with her speed from the CEM style papers. She passed the Bucks exams and scored high in the South West Herts exams too. She also got offers from all the indies she sat.

[Northdad]

Thanks for the reassurance. Many congratulations on your DDs brilliant success!

[11+pass]

Thank you Northdad.