BBC R4 Today
Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:36 pm
This morning on Radio 4's Today programme (and being all bright people, I'm sure you all listen) there was an item about 11+ exams of yore partly to plug a book of very old 11+ questions from the 50's & 60's (so mentioning this isn't competition for this site and therefore should be allowed!).
On their web site are 8 sample questions to try out. I found them rather good fun. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/ne ... 478154.stm
Also on the same site at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/today/evanda ... ories.html is Evan Davis' blog, mentioning his 11+ failure and subsequent admission to the school 'by interview'. This was how it was done back in 1972 in Surrey - about 1/3rd of the places were kept back for the staff of the grammars to look at the borderline childrens work, have a chat to them and then allow in the appropriate ones; it was a great system, in that it allowed for the 'brilliant but nervous in the exam' children - but they also interviewed all of us who had passed outright (they just couldn't turn us down once they'd looked at our work).
I can confirm that what Evan says in the blog is true - I sat next to him in some lessons (and he did participate in the world record daisy chain that we made). Dorking Grammar was a nice, mixed school, but once the fence came down between us & the girls secondary modern next door, the boys were outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1.
On their web site are 8 sample questions to try out. I found them rather good fun. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/ne ... 478154.stm
Also on the same site at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/today/evanda ... ories.html is Evan Davis' blog, mentioning his 11+ failure and subsequent admission to the school 'by interview'. This was how it was done back in 1972 in Surrey - about 1/3rd of the places were kept back for the staff of the grammars to look at the borderline childrens work, have a chat to them and then allow in the appropriate ones; it was a great system, in that it allowed for the 'brilliant but nervous in the exam' children - but they also interviewed all of us who had passed outright (they just couldn't turn us down once they'd looked at our work).
I can confirm that what Evan says in the blog is true - I sat next to him in some lessons (and he did participate in the world record daisy chain that we made). Dorking Grammar was a nice, mixed school, but once the fence came down between us & the girls secondary modern next door, the boys were outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1.