Comprehension - Allowed to write on the test paper?

11 Plus English - Preparation and Information

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loopylou
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Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:08 am

Comprehension - Allowed to write on the test paper?

Post by loopylou »

I have asked in the Surrey section but was wondering, as it’s a general query, whether anybody might be able to help here please?

My DS did a mock test and scored quite badly for English which surprised us as English is by far his strongest subject. We decided to go over comprehension at home and it transpired that, in the mock exam, they had been banned from making any sort of marks on the test paper. At school, they are always taught to underline relevant points, key facts, adjectives etc but in the mock it appears they were expected to either read and retain the information or make notes on an entirely separate sheet of paper (DS opted for trying to memorise the entire text and hence did badly).

Has anybody ever come across this rule before? I notice the Letts English papers do say on the front cover not to make any marks on the booklet at all. This despite each comprehension text being 2 A4 pages long. We don’t have a tutor to ask and I wondered whether I am supposed to be teaching DS to make notes paragraph by paragraph on rough paper rather than using underlining and stars and circling as he does now to complete these tests?

Thank You
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