Reading Grammar School

[pndt.snl]

Hi!

I bought few Bond assessments for english for age 8-9,9-10,10-11+
It has some gd practice for comprehensions
will start with 8-9 book

any suggestions regarding speelings/vocabulary practice
also pl. advice other gd test papers for Reading boys
Reading boys would have vr/nvr, maths & english.3 papers..
any inputs for maths papers preperations..Complete Novice & steve..pl. advice


Thanks

[pndt.snl]

sorry..forgot ..
I believe the scoring pattern is also somewhat unique ..
raw score..age standerdised score..
how are they calculated
pl..advice


Thanks

[11+ novice]

Thanks CN for the response, have looked at nfer papers they are the ones with a golden fish at the front ISBN: 9780708703892, am i looking at the right ones! Did u use Bond comprehensions for practice as well?

Any advise with English really appreciated!

[stevew61]

Most of the big publishers now do a set of English multi-choice. They are all good practice, just remember the Reading format has been two shorter comprehensions then other sections and 65 questions in fifty minutes, all subject to change. Reading do tell you the exam is based on KS2 so I don't think you need to go looking for harder papers.

NFER/GL/?? have all changed partners so just check you don't buy the same papers twice in different packaging.

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/books/ ... p?g=f&p=17" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Complete Novice]

Hi 11+ novice

Yes we did use Bond as well for extra practice. They were useful but I didn't think they were as good, sometimes the answers seemed questionable. We probably did the least practice for the English paper out of all the exams.

The ISBN no on my Nfer pack is 0-07087-0389-5 so not the same as yours. It may just be that they have changed their name. The first comprehension in 11A is Shadows in the Snow if that helps. On the front cover are tulips and it refers to both NferNelson and Letts.

As Steve says, the standard is about Key stage 2 but it did cover some areas my DS had not yet covered at school ie Active and passive voice

Good luck!
CN

[deontological]

sorry..forgot ..
I believe the scoring pattern is also somewhat unique ..
raw score..age standerdised score..
how are they calculated
pl..advice

I've posted a few age-standardisation threads last year. Here's one of them:
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... =10&t=9710" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've reproduced here just in case the thread got lost in translation ...

"Bewildered and many others have previously mentioned the "age-standardisation" of exam scores, but it probably is worth reiterating the point particularly for those new to this forum or to the Reading grammar schools admission process.

In short, the younger your DC is relative to the cohort of other children sitting the same exam(s), the greater the upward adjustment of raw scores in arriving at the your DC's standardised score. Both Reading Boys and Kendrick Girls operate a similar standardisation (or normalisation) process.

Thus the youngest child at a certain sitting might have a 31 August birthdate compared to the oldest of, say, 1 September the previous year and is effectively a full year younger in actual age. The age-standardisation of scores addresses that imbalance of exam performance due to that age difference.

I used to explain the idea to my DD using the "normal bell curve" where, on the one side of a certain score (say ~85%/86%), pupils get in to the school and, on the other, they don't. I used to encourage my DD to improve her raw score during practices to "beyond the safety buffer on the correct side of the bell curve." That way, we wouldn't have to chew off all our nails on results day and wouldn't have to leave too much to chance on the actual age-standardisation process.

If your DC is relatively an "old" child, then you'd need to allow for a wider band of tolerance on that "safety buffer" (of say an extra 4%-5%); conversely, a much narrower band (of say 1%) would suffice for a "younger" child. Hope this is clear ... normally I'd draw a few diagrams to explain the above but I haven't quite worked out the technology for dumping a graphic/diagram on this forum yet!"

As far as I'm aware, they're still using the "upward" adjustment of raw scores for younger candidates, rather than downward adjustment for the older ones. Of course, provided it's done consistently, whichever method they choose for the standardisation, it'd still yield the same effect of normalising the raw scores by adjusting the impact of age-difference.

[pndt.snl]

@ deontological

Thanks a lot

[pndt.snl]

Hi! All

Year 5 started fro my DS
we have been preparing & going through few stratigies & techniques.

We'r struggling a bit with NVR & English for the Reading boys.
Kindly advice on the study/practice material.
Also, pl..if any suggestion/reference for Tutors in Reading..pl. send me a PM...

Will attend the open days coming up,but was still a bit unsure abut how to lay my order of preferences.
I am trying for Reading boys..but also wish to apply for Wilsons & langley..
wuld the schools know abut their preference in form ..??

Thnx...

[cestlavie]

Hi - DS2 is also starting year 5. We've not done much yet but found the Lett's "Success" series book for year 5 NVR very good, he can easily get near 100% which is a huge confidence boost (and means he wants to do more!) and the types of questions seem quite close in style to the NFER/Letts 11+ papers (i.e. sequences, matrices, odd one out, codes). The same series English papers are also good, comprehensions are much easier than Bond although so far we've stuck with Bond as reading is one of his stronger areas.

[mad?]

I am trying for Reading boys..but also wish to apply for Wilsons & langley..
wuld the schools know abut their preference in form ..??
Thnx...

No they wouldn't so be sure to put them in your true order of preference. FWIW I'd think carefully about location as Wilsons and Reading are hours apart in the rush hour.