11 Plus Exams Forum

Is anyone aware of what the topics for the writing exercise are ?? unsure of what we should be focusing on. Any comments are appreciated

I'll just move this to the medway section of the forum - you may get more replies there

Hi, I would not only prepare them for an extended writing exercise, but also letter writing, as the in 2009, a lot of children were caught out and not prepared.

First time in a few years apparently.

yes my dd took the test in 2009 - she is generally good at writing so i hadnt done any prep prior to exam on this area as she needed to focus heavily on her maths, however the night before the exam i just said lets look at how a letter is set out etc - we only did about 15 mins talking about it but was very glad we did. In the test she scored very well on the writing section. She said she put her address, their address and signed off correctly etc as well as paragraphing and using persuasive language - many of her firends forgot the addresses etc - i am sure she got more marks for including them.

Also look at newspaper reports - story writing - diary entries - leaflets -
Get them to use descriptive and persuasive language. And make sure they know to READ THE QUESTION - many dc;s are caught out by not answering properly.

last year there seemed to be a slightly different format in the writing test in that normally they have to write a letter or story - last year i think they had some sort of choice? Perhaps someone could help out on that point.

Many thanks for your helpful reply .

tiredmum wrote:last year there seemed to be a slightly different format in the writing test in that normally they have to write a letter or story - last year i think they had some sort of choice? Perhaps someone could help out on that point.

Well just trying to remember, sorry if its all muddled up but it was writing a letter to the Prime Minister about what they could do to their school (or school playground) to improve on the environmental impact. I think some kids didn't realise or see that it was a letter so don't know for real if it was letter or not but my DD said it was a letter to PM to do with environment.

I think its good just having a discussion about current stuff that everyone seem to be going on about in case its non fiction and just discuss what your DC thinks.