11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi. We have been working through the GL papers, but I notice that all the St Ambrose papers are shorter than the 50 minute papers we have been practising.
Can anyone whose son sat last year, possibly give me an idea of the format of the St Ambrose tests please? I imagine for example that if the English is 30 minutes, there may not be time for a comprehension and spelling/grammar tests.
Are we on the right track concentrating on GL? We are also working through the Bond 10 min tests.
Thanks.

I think it was English, VR, Maths, essay. I'm not sure how long each paper was but it wasn't GL.

The GL papers are in my opinion , more difficult than the exams, so if your son is coping with them, then he will be fine for whatever exam he is sitting.

Thank you, that is reassuring. He is finding the GL papers hard, and I keep hearing that they need to be scoring 85% to pass (I do not know how true this is). It is so stressful maintaining the balance between keeping him practising but not over doing it to keep the pressure off. I'm in two minds now to move away from GL and stick with easier shorter practice tests to keep his confidence up.

St. Ambrose test:

VR (45min)
Arithmetic (35min)

Short Break

English (30min)
Creative Writing (25min)

Tests are NFER administered by GL Assessment.

Good luck!

it was a few years ago now, but other than VR, which my son was very good at, I don't think he got to 85% in ANY of the other GL papers. Some in 50s ,some in 60s and 70's.

He passed for AGSB and St A.

My son sat and passed blast year. My involvemt was vr, my wife handled the English and maths. He was getting about 75% in the gl papers but sometimes as low as 50. The main things are the vr test is NOT multi choice but on the flip side he said the test was easier than what he was practicing. For reference he scored 348 on the test when he was at about the 75% standard on the gl papers.

Good to know we concur David and hope we have put your mind at rest a bit nlb?

Hi, When my son sat last year from what he said the English although it sounds like it is filling missing word in sentences and 4 options are given, a lot of the questions very very tricky as he'd never heard of those vocab before. Not trying to panic you but do not agree with a few people saying st. A is easy and not Gl assessment standard, from what my son told me (who sat all three schools) it is same standard but set internally as they are the only school currently setting an English paper (so it's bound to be different). What one child finds hard another child might find it easier (it depends on the strength of the child). Good luck to your DC.