11 Plus Exams Forum

My DD had her first mock last week for CEM and she did ok but could do better. Are the mocks at the test centres made harder than the real exam? The CGP test papers seemed to give better results. Not sure if what I'm doing is right. I'm trying to get her to read more, she does 1 bond maths 11-12, 1 schofield, 1 VR Susan Daughtrey, 1 GL NVR, 1 fptp cloze and comprehension every day. We are moving onto maths on target year 5 but is there anything I'm missing? How can I get her more used to shuffled sentences? I'm at the brick wall and not sure what else I can do.

I don't suppose that unless you get to see the mock questions and answers you will ever know.

How do you do what you listed every day? It made me feel inadequate! Even if I homeschooled we would not get through that. If your child does not do well, something has gone wrong!

its sooo hard

there's a whole mountain of stuff available which can be misleading

i cant even advise you like others who have got kids thru as dd is my first born


but its more or less what im doing to......

To be honest I think you are doing too much but that is up to each individual family to decide what they do with their child.

We visited my daughters possible grammar school last week and the head teacher was very clear that you are doing your child no favours by over tutoring as they will struggle to keep up once they are in the school.

Anyway in terms of the mock, did your daughter panic when she got in there? Did the timings play a part? Were there other things going on? My daughter just scored 93% on a CGP paper which gives me the impression that the CGP is a lot easier than the actual papers.

Hope your daughter does well and gets into the school you want.x

was it the verbal she did and got 93% on???

i find the verbal easier than the nonvr

hi stephiB

i DO agree with you on the point that an average child should never to over tutored for the test.

my dd is naturally bright and all im doing is trianing her brain to tackle questions. I would never put my dd through it otherwise as its such a hard and long process preparing for the 11 plus.

She really wants to do it too.
Why??????? i have no clue whatsoever. she wants to be an optician so she will be successful wherever she goes.

i would really hate to think of a poor child who gets in n struggles - that is no way to spend the next 7 years

my husband and i have also decided that if she just scrapes through we will seriously consider the alternative which is an outstanding school

I'm trying to get her to read more, she does 1 bond maths 11-12, 1 schofield, 1 VR Susan Daughtrey, 1 GL NVR, 1 fptp cloze and comprehension every day.

Does she go to school as well? Honestly, this is too much.

but is there anything I'm missing?

Rest and time to absorb learning. Give her more time to just read, enjoy and absorb. Comprehension would improve. You don't need GL paper every day. These are 8 only any way. Repeating same paper very often would make no difference.

walsallmum wrote:was it the verbal she did and got 93% on???

i find the verbal easier than the nonvr

It was maths and non verbal reasoning that she got 93%. She got 78% on the Comprehension and verbal reasoning, mainly losing marks on the vocabulary sections.

So guess what we are concentrating on!?!

Gosh! Thanks so much, I thought we weren't doing enough. She is very bright, top of her class at school. She normally takes about an hour to do all the work.

It's just that the mocks seem to be so much harder than the CGP CEM papers. She was getting 99% in them and then in the mock she was average. I thought the CGP papers were the closest thing to the actual 11+? Are the mocks then made out to be harder than the actual test? So many questions!

I will probably do less of the VR/NVR, and get her to concentrate on her vocab, ie reading books, its just getting her to read the 'right' books. I'll also get her to look at Maths on target and focus on that.

It's just so confusing. Feeling exasperated...

from my personal experience the mocks are harder, esp the tuition centre ones. I think they want parents to panic and buy more of their books or online tests!
PoonkyMonkey 99% is BRILLIANT on a cgp cem paper! Carry on with what you are doing.

Good luck everyone, not long left now!