11 Plus Exams Forum

Please can anyone tell me the level of Nfer difficulty. My DS got only 75% on NVR 11A but almost 100% on 11C and 11D. To me Nfer paper should have the same level of difficulty. Based on my DS result it's 25-30% difference.

Crazydad - Nfer NVR A is a notoriously difficult paper. My ds did the 4 NVR practice papers this summer and his scores mirror your son's exactly - almost full marks on papers B,C and D, and mid 70s on paper A.

When I first started on the 11+ a few years ago, Nfer NVR A was the first paper I did with ds1. He got something like 45%. I was so shocked I did it myself and managed to get 65% but it took me about an hour and a half! But he soon got the hang of it and scored highly on the other 3 papers.

It's a bit of a cruel trick to make the first paper so hard - must put the wind up a lot of people!

Thanks for the heads up on NVR 11A being harder. I have worked though it with my daughter and I really struggled on several of the questions. Just glad to know that I am not totally out of step with everyone else.

Good grief, I just asked DD to do her first NVR practice and I gave her this 11A. Her score made me run into panic mode and now this old post has put me at peace knowing its the hardest paper.

The score shocked me a bit and so decided to head to this NVR section for more tips and I am so releaved to know its the hardest. I wish I had known this and given her another paper, but then again she now knows how hard the papers can be. Revising it also left me a bit dump founded as I cant quite work out how they get some of the answers.

Bexley Mum 2 wrote:When I first started on the 11+ a few years ago, Nfer NVR A was the first paper I did with ds1. He got something like 45%.

My DD managed a little less than that, so 45% let alone 70% sounds a dream right now but hopefully she soon picks up the hang of things. I think she also panicked about being timed, its just working through more and timing almost all her NVR work now. I found when revising the paper she got some of the answers right immediately knowing where she had gone wrong, so timimg seems really an issue too.

I do the papers first so that I know what i am teaching. 11A drove me nuts! I had to wade back through the whole of this section to get answers.

(I now keep annotated copies, much less stressful!)

If you can get anywhere near 75% on paper A, then the real thing should be ok.
Don't be fooled by papers b,c and d. These are too easy. My dd was getting close to 100% in just 1/3 of the time during the summer. I therefore thought it would be a walk in the park.
She failed the Kent test on the nvr paper!

Oh Tracy thats really crazy and it must have been a shock. Many thanks for letting me know that so I cant really depend on these score alone. It seems these NFER papers are a little easy than the real one bcause I have been hearing the maths wasnt as straightforward as the practise papers.

Did you do any Bond NVR papers and how do these compare to the NFER? I have some bond ones but havent looked at them.

I ordered some of the new NFER papers yesterday, I think it was Steve who had a look at them and he says they are different. Hopefully they will be a bit closer to the real thing. I guess its important to just practice different practise papers by different authors but I thought Letts was supposed to closer to the real things but it seems not.

We had put the NVR practice on the back burner as she was getting really good score with the bond and the ae tuition books but it wasnt really timed. Now I think we need to do more and NVR just seem like one of those subjects you just have to keep doing practise questions and get more familiar with what to look for. DD seem to pick the first pattern easily and sometimes forget to look at the second/ third pattern

Well, yes it was gutting to say the least!
We did look at Bond, and they were no probs, but were directed to Nfer as 'it's the closest thing to the real tests'. Whilst that is true, paper A is the level of difficulty to expect. When my dd did this one she still got 60% ish so she should have passed.
I think, in our case, that it was a case of 'all in one day' as we are ooc and my dd was one of the youngest and couldn't cope with it all. She'd been in floods of tears at school just 2 days beforehand, she completely broke down in front of all the other kids and said she couldn't do any of it!
Strange thing is she has had to do nvr banding tests for the comps around here and she has done very well.

Tracy wrote: I think, in our case, that it was a case of 'all in one day' as we are ooc and my dd was one of the youngest and couldn't cope with it all.

I have heard this can really throw kids off when they come to the pressure of the real thing. I have booked her in for some sutton mocks in June. They will be three papers on one day so hopefully that can help her a bit and we are just trying a few papers before the mocks.

The good thing for you Tracy is you got a good school for her and it worked out in the end. Some of the schools in my woods here just horrifies me and yet it seems such hard work all this 11+ preparation. I keep hearing people say the penny will drop one day but I cant wait for that day

Sherry_d i don't know which section I posted this this before but do make your DD do the kent practise tests. My DD was quite nervous on the practise day and felt much better on the actual day. She had seen where she had to go, where the loos were and wo was in the room with her. It all helped on the day.