St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??

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Olliesmum
Posts: 53
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 7:57 pm

St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??

Post by Olliesmum »

Hi - my ds is going to be sitting the St Ambrose exam on 19th September this year - and I am hearing so many conflicting views about the format of the Catholic Grammar Schools' exams - it is now getting to be very confusing!! I don't want to practise elements of the exams with my ds if he is definitely not going to be tested on them! We have been given the following information:
VR - 45 mins
Maths - 35 mins
English - 30 mins

No one has mentioned a Creative Writing task until yesterday... so where does it fit in? Is it in addition to the English paper? I can't see how they could do an English paper and CW within 30 mins? Also - does anyone know whether these exams are the standard GL Assessment papers - or exams written by the school as I've heard? I know some of you have a ds who sat this paper a few years ago, but current info tells me that it all got a little bit more difficult in 2014...so if anyone can tell me what the English paper consisted of last year - I would be very grateful!
wilmslowmum
Posts: 96
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:13 pm

Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??

Post by wilmslowmum »

Hi Olliesmum, My DS sat last year, there wasn't any creative writing as far as I can remember, the format is Moray House, I dont think they do practice papers, the English seemed to be vocab which wasnt terribly difficult until the last page or so, it was multiple choice. VR reasoning was similar to GL. Maths my DS said was easier than GL. Hope this helps a bit, I can only go off what my DS relayed back to me. Good Luck
Olliesmum
Posts: 53
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 7:57 pm

Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??

Post by Olliesmum »

Thanks Wilmslowmum!
This is really useful actually. How did you find out that it was Moray House? Also - for the English paper, by 'vocab' - would this be Cloze exercises? Thanks for confirming though that there wasn't any Creative writing! :D
miltonkeynes
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2014 5:23 pm

Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??

Post by miltonkeynes »

My son also sat it last year and there was no creative writing. I have heard its the same papers every year?
wilmslowmum
Posts: 96
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:13 pm

Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??

Post by wilmslowmum »

Somebody mentioned to me it was moray house last year, there were definately no practice papers as i looked online!! I am not familiar with cloze , my DS said they had a sentence and had to choose the most suitable word, whether that was to fit in the sentence or describe it , i dont know. He said they started really easy then got more difficult , some at the end were very challenging and probably pot luck if you knew them.
Olliesmum
Posts: 53
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 7:57 pm

Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??

Post by Olliesmum »

Thanks. So there is a Cloze/gap fill exercise as we have been told. I am just wondering now if the Moray House papers are similar to the KS2 SATs papers? It is only a 35 minute maths paper - so it can't be the GL Assessment paper? :D
twinsgashead
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2011 8:10 pm

Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??

Post by twinsgashead »

Yes, my DSs sat it in 2014 and thought it was the easier that Altrincham or Urmston. Definitely no creative writing and if you've done prep with GL papers you'll be fine as that will cover vocab etc.
Olliesmum
Posts: 53
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 7:57 pm

Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??

Post by Olliesmum »

Thanks for this! It's useful to know all of this...we are in the final days of preparation now aren't we? If the GL English paper covers Vocab...is that just the cloze tests, or will it also be questions on spelling and punctuation etc?
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