11 Plus Exams Forum

Reading all these threads just made me think - it was all so much easier in my day.

I remember (and still have) the practice booklet for the test (admittedly 12+ in my area in those days). I remember there was no pressure and a "que sera, sera" attitude.

I remember walking out of middle school clutching my brown results envelope and opening it because it was " my future, not my parents' " (stroppy hormones had obviously kicked in by then!)

I remember being disappointed that I had passed and wouldn't be at the same school as my sisters/friends.

I remember getting on with accepting my new school, along with its hideous uniform, and hating it...

There is so much stress now around the 11+ (and yes, most of my grey hairs come from that stressful time a year ago), but I just wondered if anyone else could look back on those days with fondness?

I remember that oop north we did 2 years at the local comp then the bright ones got a letter recommending they go to the Grammar and the rest got a letter recommending that they didn't... but if they wanted to then they could go anyway! I did the entrance exam for the local independent and with no extra work and no idea about past papers or what to expect was offered a place, but no idea about bursarys or anything because I don't think we could really afford it, and I decided I didn't want to go anyway. Yes, simpler days...

I did the 11 plus in Solihull when the local Grammars were Tudor Grange, Malvern Hall and Harold Malley / Harold Cartwright (now Alderbrook). All single gender, the secondary moderns were co-ed.
Exam was in school hall

I did mine in the school dining hall.
The format had changed that year, so we did a short practice(VR) and next day sat the test.
If you passed you went to grammar or technical high school, fail to secondary modern.
We had 4 grammar schools ( boys, girls, Catholic Boys and Catholic Girls) and one mixed Technical High School.

I took the 11+ for King Edwards in Birmingham and didn't get in. In those days Birmingham senior schools started at age 11 and Sutton schools at age 12.
All the kids who wanted to go to a Grammar and failed the 11+, myself included, then went to middle school in Sutton for a year and took the 12+. I then got into Sutton Girls'.
I really wanted to go to Riland Bedford comp. (now Plantsbrook), so was a bit disappointed!
We got our 2 chances, like taking Walsall and Birmingham now. Will be so much harder for kids if they combine those next year.

We only had the 12+ ... at least we had a bit more learning (hohum not at my school) under our belt, so maybe I should say maturity instead of learning!

Sample question from our practice progress book circa 1978:

A had invited seven other girls to her party. They were B, C, D, E, F, G and H. They were to be seated at a round table and A had already sat down. When the others came to sit down D wanted to sit between F and H. C wanted to sit next to B but not next to G or E. E wanted to sit next to A and opposite F. H wanted to sit next to A on her left side. Put these seven girls in their places so that they will be satisfied.

Lol!!! Mine was set in a cinema and they were boys...so not much changed between 1978 and 1982! My 11+ was to get into the secondary of the private boarding school I was at - no practice...we were just told that we were sitting a test that day!

I sat mine about 1982 with no prep or familiarisation whatsoever. A superselective where 1000 girls sat for 90 (now 160) places. Possibly in the same room DD sat for hers (and unlike her mother, passed). I remember seeing weird questions I had never seen in my life and completely flunking. I think they may have been NVR. At the time the girls and boys sat the same test but there was one girls school and one boys school. I got a high enough score for the boys school and my Dad fought with the authorities and I was very nearly the first girl at the boys school. No wonder they changed the test after that so they couldn't be compared! I went to an average comp which setted and although not pushed I didn't do too badly. I certainly never felt like a failure.

Girls and boys took the same test in Bucks, I think, though one or two boys didn't take it (one was a chair thrower, the other spent his school days in the HT office!). Remember choosing my high school based on distance only as I couldn't face the thought of walking to the other end of the town and up a steep hill! My HS has closed but the other HS is now the keeper of all the historic data on my school; I visited it recently to discover what I had forgotten! So I would say if any DCs are struggling with their current school then 30+ years from now they might look back with fondness

Mine was in 1968, we were streamed, 40 in the A stream and slightly smaller numbers in the B and C streams. There was also a 4R who were taught in a room behind the stage.