Which papers are more difficult? Bond or NFER?

Eleven Plus (11+) in South West Hertfordshire

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Spatel2
Posts: 102
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:53 am

Which papers are more difficult? Bond or NFER?

Post by Spatel2 »

Are your DCs finding the NFER or Bond papers (Maths and English) more difficult?
What are they scoring?

DS has only done Two NFER English papers and One Bond, and he found them the same, however I'm sure I've read somewhere that the BOnd ones are slighlty harder?

Your experience, please?

Cheers
cindrella
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Re: Which papers are more difficult? Bond or NFER?

Post by cindrella »

Which papers are you after? Bond Pack 1 has 4papers in each for NVR, VR, English and maths.
Same with NFER. 4 papers in all VR ,NVR, English and Maths
but, generally average it Bond Vs NFER
English 74% 66%
maths 66% 78%
NVR 60% 72%
VR 74% 84%
This was the very first time he did these papers and he improved a lot as he grasped the technique, timing - like come back to hard questions later.. marking in another sheet, checking the right answers in the end..
He had rushed the first time panicking he might run out of time but instead he did the NVR paper in 15 mins instead of 45 mins because of timing and worrying ...

As they do them a few times they get an idea of how to speed up or slow down accordingly. 2nd attempt Bond papers : he got 93% bond VR, 83% NVR, maths 88% English 76%
NFER papers he got 95% VR , NVR91% , 75%english and Maths 86%
so I hope this helps because remember the second time he was sure of his answers and probably corrected silly mistakes!
Cinderella
Spatel2
Posts: 102
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:53 am

Re: Which papers are more difficult? Bond or NFER?

Post by Spatel2 »

Hi Cindi
Thanks for that :-)
Are these scores for a child in yr 5 or 6?

Cheers
cindrella
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Re: Which papers are more difficult? Bond or NFER?

Post by cindrella »

They are my older sons scores when I was preping him for his tests (for 2010 entrances). He did them in the summer holidays, after year 5, and before beginning yr 6! I kept them to compare with my younger son who will do them this summer!
Cinderella
Spatel2
Posts: 102
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:53 am

Re: Which papers are more difficult? Bond or NFER?

Post by Spatel2 »

Impressive!
Well organised!
My son did the papers only once and I can only give an average for the VR and NVR, which are:
NFER VR - 92
NFER NVR - 88
Bond VR - 93
BOnd NVR - 93

but my son did do these in oct/ nov so he did have a couple of months of good prep behind him, also hes a november born so standardised down a mark or two.
Chocolatey Mum
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Re: Which papers are more difficult? Bond or NFER?

Post by Chocolatey Mum »

My dd found NFER harder than bond for NVR and Maths.

Can't remember exact scores but NVR bond she always was way over 80% but found NFER harder and timing was an issue. NFEr pack 2 she scored mid 60s just before she was due to sit the test but on pack 1 she went over 70%. She passed the Kent test comfortably.

We didn't do bond for VR as not relevant to Kent.
Spatel2
Posts: 102
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:53 am

Re: Which papers are more difficult? Bond or NFER?

Post by Spatel2 »

Thanks Chocmum and Cindy
DS just completed the English 11+ English papers and we found that the Bond papers are more difficult.
DS averages 78 in the first set of NFERs and 83 in the second set (5,6,7,8), however in the Bond (first 4 papers), his average is only 74%.
He has only done the tests once and wont be doing them again (I know some do, but I don't see much benefit, as he remembers the answers anyway!).
In the last 3-4 papers he has been scoring higher. He still makes on 3-5 silly mistakes!! In recent tests, he has managed to complete the tests in 42/43 minutes (inc checking) - but having seen his silly mistakes, I think he needs to check for a bit longer!

Maths, he finds NFER a slightly harder than Bond, his first Bond was 78% - with 10 silly mistakes!! In papers 2,3,4 he averages 96% - Average for all 4 tests (including the 78% = 92%

For NFER maths, he averages 92%.

Again, in the last few papers he has managed to do a bit better. He finishes the maths with plenty of time.

Main thing now for him, is to reduce the silly mistakes!

p.s. wouldn't it be interesting if the QE English test was written this year ;-)
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