Kendrick School, Berks

Terri · Post by **Terri** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:23 pm

Hi Patricia,
Please could you advise me which papers I should use to help my daughter prepare for the Kendrick School exam in November this year ?
We have completed the 4 NFER booklets I got from Reading WH Smiths and I'm not sure what we should do now .
Thanks Terri

Post by **patricia** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:26 am

Dear Terri

There have only been a couple of posts concerning the Kendrick school. The school website suggests the tests consist of a Verbal Reasoning and a Non Verbal Reasoning paper.

You need to find out who publish the tests, is it NFER, is it standard form or multiple choice?

Patricia

Terri · Post by **Terri** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:48 pm

Patricia,
I got the 2 sets (of 4 papers in each) VR and Non VR in standard format which the school recommend and I am not sure where to go from here as we have worked through the papers and there is a vast selection of others and I don't know which are appropriate for Kendrick School.I am not sure what other things I should be doing to help her, we have been using your difficult word lists and they have been really useful.

I have tried to find out what the average pass mark is ,but can't find this anywhere or how many girls are sitting for the places.I haven't really got any idea of how good her chances are as I'm not sure what standard she needs to reach, she finds Non VR much easier and gets about 85% right in the timed tests, not so good for VR closer to about 75%.

Nobody from my daughter's school is going to try for Kendrick and I can't find out very much about the tests as we don't know anybody who goes there .
My daughter is desperate to get into this school and found this website, I just want to help her achieve her goals, like all mums I guess....
Thankyou so much for your help

Terri · Post by **Terri** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:51 pm

Patricia,
AAGH ! I didn't answer your question, sorry - yes its NFER standard version.
Thanks

ReadingGuest · Post by **ReadingGuest** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:37 pm

Hi Terri,

My daughter passed for Kendrick this year. There were some 400 applicants for the 93 places but some of these were also trying for the private girls schools and would not nec. take up their place if offered. Sorry, can't help with advice on the papers - we just did a selection of the standard versions. Did think the non-NFER tests were slightly easier as my daughter was getting 95 per cent plus on these and only 85 per cent average on the NFER versions.

Hope that helps.

Post by **patricia** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:42 pm

Dear Terri

If the tests are in standard form I am unsure of the exact content/types of questions [ VR].

Susan Daughtry [ her Bright Sparks,series ] IPS and AFN all have Std versions of their tests. The only problem is that STD can use many different types not usually found in multiple choice eg anagrams, number position codes,word grids.

As I have not checked out the above Std form tests, I really cannot be accurate with my advice.

With regard to NVR as I am a Bucks based tutor, my knowledge re which are the best publishers is frankly, unreliable.

We need some Berks tutors on this forum!

Chad and Catherine may be able to help.

Patricia

Catherine · Post by **Catherine** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:17 pm

Hi Terry,

My son took the test for Slough last year. They include NVR in NFER multichoice format.

I didn't have time to do a lot more than the NFER pack, but here's my thoughts about the other papers I got.
The Bond "How to do verbal Reasoning" and The Learning Togeteher Practice Papers have more question types than the NFER that only have about 7 types. I didn't use them a lot and not sure how good they are. They are easier than the NFER papers, and may be good to start with. Just before the exam, I downloaded some E-papers from this site. The '11+ Exam' papers are close to the NFER types in term of content and level (may be a bit harder). I thought that the MW were too different.
Sorry if the info is a bit thin!
A quick tip: Doing a small amount of NVR (10mns) regularly (more or less daily) worked well for my son.

Hope this helps

Catherine

Terri · Post by **Terri** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:02 pm

Thank you everybody for your responses, we are both very grateful.

Bewildered · Post by **Bewildered** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:49 pm

I have tried to find out what the average pass mark is ,but can't find this anywhere or how many girls are sitting for the places.I haven't really got any idea of how good her chances are as I'm not sure what standard she needs to reach, she finds Non VR much easier and gets about 85% right in the timed tests, not so good for VR closer to about 75%.

Terri,

Try calling the school directly. My son will be trying for Reading school, but not until next November (07), when I called the admissions dept, the gentleman was very helpful, and also very encouraging. I asked about average pass mark, and types of exams.
He must get questions from prosprective parents all the time.
You have nothing to lose.

B

stevew61 · Post by **stevew61** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:01 am

Bewildered,

We are trying for Reading this November and have a good idea on types of papers from last years students, however average pass marks are unknown, we do hear selective horror stories of high mark unsuccesful candidates, but I suspect parents are being selective and reporting childs strongest subject.

Any information you could share would be very much appreciated.

stevew61