Newstead Wood Exam

[Hangin'_around]

Hi to everyone, does anyone know how many question types appear in the Newstead Wood VR test. It appears that the same VR and NVR papers are used every year as they are specially commissioned by the the school, but does anyone know if 21 types or the 35 types appear in the VR examination. The type of vocabulary questions that are in the sample papers are not covered in the 21 types of questions that are recommended to be learned for the Bexley/Kent tests. There is no information in these forums with regard to the types of questions recommended for the Newstead VR test although there is plenty of information stating the question types that appear in the Bexley/Kent test. Very little seems to be known about the Newstead Wood test although the same papers appear to be used every year and many pupils sit the examination every year. I have prepared my DD for the Kent & Bexley tests, but high quality information about the aforementioned tests is very scarce!! I would expect more mathematical type VR questions to appear in the tests as there is no mathematics test. Also, what is the best preparation for both tests. My DD will be taking the test - the open day is on this Saturday. Any information on preparation/question types for both VR and NVR tests will be greatly appreciated.

[Stripyem]

Newstead will not tell you results - you have to wait until your offer in March, then the post out results to everone who didn't pass or get offered a place. We put it first as we knew our daughter had got in the top 180 in Bexley and passed the Kent so we hoped she had done well it this one also - thankfully we had an offer and she started this September. People have said the pass rate was higher than other years and someone with 234 was on a waiting list - my daughter was getting 97/98% on Bonds papers. I tried to find out what my daughter scored just so I would know if she scraped in or not but they wouldn't even tell me that after the offer! Good luck.

[2010 mum]

Stripyem

You said your daughter was getting 97/98% on Bonds papers. what level of the bond paper did she gain these score?

[crazydaisy]

Can't believe all the NW hopefulls are so quiet! Where are you all? Doing your VR and NVR? Isn't it hard to keep going when Bexley and Kent are coming to an end? Mebbe my DD is the only one sitting the exam November 14th - we'll be in with a chance then! Has anyone heard what time slot they are getting? And anyone else freaked by the comment that one child was getting 98%s for her Bond papers at this stage? I guess NW must take some children who are not that consistently clever? Can anyone who succeeded last year give us some idea?
Only 3 1/2 weeks to go anyway....

[welbk]

Hi to all of you 2010 hopefuls out there!

I was in your position last year, my daughter joined Newstead in September.

At my DD year 5 parents evening we were told that she had Newstead potential but needed to work on her NVR, as her standardised scores were low compared to her VR scores. This is very important as we knew that if it came to a tie for a place the NVR score has priority!
After much soul seaching we decided to do some work with her, using our favourite - Bond, and left it at that.

We entered her for the Newstead test but decided to see what her 11+ results would bring. Fortunately she gained a Bexley Top 180 place and passed the Kent with maximum marks for Maths and VR but still a lower score for the NVR. We asked her whether she still wanted to take the Newstead test, as she was fortunate enough to know that she could pick the Bexley school of her choice. DD had loved Newstead when we looked around and said that she would, so it happened!

After the test she did say that she had found the NVR difficult, so we gave the "as long as you've tried your best" talk - and meant every word of it!
There were over 700 girls taking the test last year, and I'm sure that there will be many more applications this year, judging by the number of people who attended the open day.

I don't wish to dampen your spirits but take heed - please do not be tempted to cram your daughter for these exams, you know your own child's potential, speak to their headteachers. My DD has remarked that there are already girls struggling with homework and it's not even half-term yet!

Good luck to you all for March and be proud of them whatever the result

[crazydaisy]

thanks for that, and snap, our DD is in the same position with almost identical Kent and Bexley scores. And her weakest subject is NVR too, so we are slogging away at that. It's also v. useful to know you stuck to Bond - can you remember what sort of scores she was getting at this stage, and were you doing a paper a day? Please don't say all 98%, although we're not doing too badly especially as I discovered she had a temp of 39 degrees after her paper this evening. Ooops, might not do one tomorrow.

[welbk]

crazydaisy

Don't worry, our daughter's Bond scores were 90 - 97%, depending on how tired she was when she did the paper or how bored she had got with it! We didn't do a full paper a night, maybe 20 questions 4 evenings a week and a few more the nearer the date got, but she had weekends off! To be honest we didn't expect to get Newstead as we thought that she was "examed out" by the time she took their test. The important thing is to make sure that your daughter can identify the types of things to look for, we often had a break from the test papers and worked through the Bond guide on how to do the NVR. The other critical thing is to get the timing right. A bit of competition does help inspire though, we took turns doing the tests at the same time and compared scores and answers, needless to say it was very rare for mum or dad to achieve the highest score!

We were also very postitive about her second choice school or as we called it "her alternative". If she had got the second choice she would still have been pleased, and we would have been too.

I hope that this helps

[Peter31]

Interesting to follow this thread as we're also in a similar position. DD recently obtained v high pass in the Bexley test (268) and is fortunate to have secured a selective school place. We like Bexley Grammar school very much; it's mixed gender and much nearer to us. Last night I attempted to persuad DD it was the right school for her. However despite all this there is no shifting her opinion that NW is her first choice. We also find DD is weaker on NVR compared to maths and VR and as she didn't enter for Kent she has not had the experience of NVR under test conditions. I guess we'll be doing quite a few practice papers over the half term and see how it goes.

One other thing. Can someone advise on the type of VR questions in the Newstead exam. Is it similar to Bexley or are they a different format? What is best preparation for Newstead VR do you think?

[welbk]

Peter31

We were in exactly the same position as you last year although our DD did get Newstead, Bexley Grammar was our alternative as we (and our DD) were very impressed with it our visit. I know several children who have started in year 7 and they're all loving it there as much as our daughter loves Newstead. You're sure of a good school whatever the result, good luck on Nov 14th!

[elvira azra]

I didn't know you could get the results online- how?