Nfer Papers

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l_Bexley

Nfer Papers

Post by l_Bexley »

Does anybody else think the Nfer multiple choice papers are much harder than the Bond books?

My son did the 11A paper last week and scored really badly - I'm now in a bit of a panic!

Any advice or suggestions much appreciated.
Guest

Post by Guest »

The English section generally seems quiet compared to the VR and NVR sections. I think the MC papers are hard with my son never scoring more than 80% whereas he can get almost full marks in the other types of paper. How bad is bad. It may well be that you just think he is doing badly but actually he is doing quite well. The problem is that the only people who answer the sort of question you pose have children that score nearly full marks which is really demoralising for us parents whose kids do not do as well. I would only hope that everyone elses children also find the papers hard!
fm

Post by fm »

When I've used NFER english papers in the past even my top end English students score, at most, 42/49. Arguably any capable of doing much more than that wouldn't need tutoring so I would never see them. At any rate, all the students I've had scoring this have gained entry to King Edward Foundation schools--not an easy feat.
Guest

Post by Guest »

fm

42/49 is about 86%. What about the other end of the scale. Those who have got their grammar place but didn't do as well in English practice papers. I think NFER papers in English are hard for a 10-11 year old but have been told that the papers for the school we are looking at are even harder!
fm

Post by fm »

As I said, I don't use these papers a great deal because I don't think they are particularly appropriate for the exams I target. However, I have had a child scoring as low as 23/50 gain entry into a King Edward school on the back of excellent maths and non-verbal reasoning skills. Basically it depends on your entry test and how much weight comprehension/proofreading carries.
abcdef

Post by abcdef »

Hi
I completely agree that the Nfer tests are hard. My daughter normally scores 85% + in the VR, NVR and maths. However, she has done the first two english papers over the last couple of days and scored 77% and 57% :( I think the 'proof reading' type sections are useful practice for the KE foundation tests. I am completely demoralised by these scores and am unsure as to where we go from here. Daughter was a little disappointed - but is now happily playing so hopefully no damage done to her!!!
fm

Post by fm »

I tutor for KE and I find that only the really good English students score well in these, and then it is around the 41/49 mark. I don't find them especially relevent for KE. You'd almost be better making up your own proofreading rather than the NFER ones. The punctuation is a little obscure and sometimes the children get used to looking for either spelling or punctuation or grammar whereas the real thing has a mix. Take an article from a newspapers, type it up and put in some mistakes.
That's what I do.
abcdef

Post by abcdef »

Hi fm
Thanks for advice. I have already made a few passages up, but will stick with this rather than nfer I think.
Guest

Post by Guest »

We found the NFER practice papers hard, but when it came to the real test my son was very relieved as it was NFER, but sooo much easier!

The only "Spot the mistakes" were obvious spellings, missing speech marks, wrong capital letters etc. After the practice papers he found the exam a walkover (is now in Yr8)
l_bexley

Post by l_bexley »

Many thanks for this - I may be able to sleep tonight now!
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