11 Plus Exams Forum

Why do so many of the sample papers not have answers!? It means that I have to work them out and I'm not always sure what is expected (despite being a teacher myself!).

Which papers are you using?

The English papers don't have answers because it would not be possible to list all the different answers there could be to some of the questions, especially the opinion ones.

If they listed some then parents marking would think that their student's answers were wrong just because their answer is not there.

Far better not to list any at all than to risk a parent marking a right answer wrong. DG

I assume it is because that the individual schools who publish their papers are doing so for the purposes of "familiarisation" ie to give an idea of the content and structure of the exam, rather than actually trying to produce free exam practice sources. If you are applying for a specific school and want answers for their particular specimen paper then often the Registrar will be happy to provide a copy IME.

We're using a variety of different ones. I wasn't particularly expecting the English ones to have answers (although a couple do), it's more the VR and Maths that would be useful.

I know it's about familiarisation, but knowing if you're right or wrong is also quite useful!

You could turn the CSSE English papers into totally 'standard' form by putting a sticker over the multi-choice options? You get one free familiarisation paper each of Maths and English on the website, with other, actual papers available to buy, and they come with a mark scheme.

http://www.csse.org.uk/index.php?option ... &order=ASC

Of course, only one of the CSSE schools is a true superselective, so they might not be good enough for the schools you are applying to.

Thank you