Good luck!!

[KE hopeful]

I talked to my DD who took (and passed) the Nov 2009 exam. She was a strong reader and said she new nearly all the vocab in the test. I had not done much vocab practice with her at all - just a handful of words that I knew had come up in previous tests.

DS took the test this time; he is also a strong reader, well above his reading age, albeit he started properly reading a couple of years later than DD. However he really struggled with the vocab in the test, and reckoned he only knew about 25% of words. We did loads of vocab practice - since about July we have been learning approx 2 words per day - I used the word list on this site, the words that came up in previous tests, and played this game http://www.scholastic.com/wordgirl/synonym_toast.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
All the time I kept coming up with new lists of words that he didn't know (many that I couldn't define myself so kept referring to the dictionary) - and even after all this he struggled in the test. He said the words he could do were the ones we had practiced; the other words he said he had never seen before in his life. So all this preparation will have helped him gain a few marks, but not that many. The English dictionary is too big to learn so many words for a 10 year old. I don't think there are any printed resources that can build up the sort of vocabulary you need for this test - you just have to build it up over time.

I wonder whether my DD has better "worldly" awareness than DS (or was the vocab in 2009 much easier than 2011???) - some people can only concentrate on one thing at one time, whereas others can multi-task. This very much applies to DS and DD. So DS might have encountered the words, but because he was doing something else at the time they didn't register with him. Any maybe this is something you need to pass test - and possibly can't be taught.

[JaneEyre]

He will be taking the KE exam which is again another nightmare bcoz essay writing is not his strength although he is a 5b in school.

Hi anxious mum!
To be 5B beginning of year 6 is rather excellent. I wouldn't be too anxious too much in I were you... though I would still be practising...

We are also told that the number of words for writing is going to be set to 200.

Plz, may I ask from where you got this informtation about the length of the essay? I don't see it mentionned in the letter of information about the 11+ at KES

[JaneEyre]

or was the vocab in 2009 much easier than 2011???

Maybe... We can't know for sure, but I wonder if the competition is not fiercer nowadays than a few years ago, more people being aware of the stakes...

From the few information I managed to gathered from my DS, this test was really hard in term of time pressure ... and content (with also some easy questions in maths... but this is sometimes where children do silly mistakes, thinking 'Oh, easy peasy!'). I hope it won't have knocked his confidence for the next one he has to face!

DS took the test this time; he is also a strong reader, well above his reading age, albeit he started properly reading a couple of years later than DD. However he really struggled with the vocab in the test, and reckoned he only knew about 25% of words. We did loads of vocab practice - since about July we have been learning approx 2 words per day - I used the word list on this site, the words that came up in previous tests, and played this game http://www.scholastic.com/wordgirl/synonym_toast.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
All the time I kept coming up with new lists of words that he didn't know (many that I couldn't define myself so kept referring to the dictionary) - and even after all this he struggled in the test. He said the words he could do were the ones we had practiced; the other words he said he had never seen before in his life. So all this preparation will have helped him gain a few marks, but not that many.

We also worked hard on vocab since several months ( to the point that I felt we didn't do enough maths, our attention being so much focused on English ).... and maybe to no much avail... in term of 11+ success

On a happier note, this vocab will stay with him and he'll be able to use it in the future... At least, I hope... Recently, he used one of the adverb ( that he had learnt for 11+) in a play he was writing with a group of children at school. The other children didn't know this word... and the class assistant made him change it!

[anxious_mother]

Hi JanEyre,
I know 2 kids who took the KES exam one of them is studying in the school (year 9) he is my neighbour's son and another who took the exam last year. Both of them said the same thing 200 words or so in half an hour . They will not mention these thing in the letter bcoz they don't reveal everything for the exam
Last year it seems the topic was to do with the weather. It said you went abroad for a holiday and then you had to describe something about the weather and also how it changed during the course of stay. The boy said it was tough for him bcoz of the no. of words and also he felt time was not enough.
Also if u could share any info. about what books you used for synonyms and antonyms it would be beneficial for next year DCs

[JaneEyre]

Hi anxious-mother


Oh dear, 200 words in half an hour! what a difficult task! It seems that I should change my screen name to 'super-anxious-mother'

For the vocab, we didn't use anything different from what has been suggested on this forum (vocab builder CD that you can buy in the 'shop' page). I did buy the vocabulary AE tuition books but DS didn't find the time to study them, as he was very very busy learning the new words that he encountered while reading various texts or books (I was sometimes depressed as I felt that whatever he read, there would always be some unknown words to him... and me ).

He made a notebook and wrote for each a simple definition, sometimes a sentence with the word in context, sometimes a picture. However, I have to say that there are still many many words that he never had the time to study as it is time consuming to do this kind of personal notebook (he is doing his fourth one at the moment. And when we look back at his first one, we just realise all the things he has learnt and that put some balm on our heart ) However, this way of proceeding doesn't give the antonyms or the synonyms as needed for the 11+ paper in Brum... so I am not sure we were on the right track in term of 11+ prep.

He also made some flashcards with idioms. Here again, not strictly 11+ prep, but general knowledge ... Anyway, it is so funny to learn idioms!!! Till now, we encounter some new ones from time to time and our pile of flashcards get thicker!

It happened also that I took notes of difficult words while watching the news or watching some films
... but these have often been left on a piece of paper, with no time to add them in the notebook.

Learning new words is a never ending task!
I hope you enjoyed your 11+ journey with your DS... and wish you an excellent next one with your next DC

[anxious_mother]

Many Thanks Jane Eyre for all the info.
Yes it is hard for a child to write 200 words in half an hour bcoz a) this sort of a thing is not done in school b) they have to choose the correct word or quality word so as to make it interesting to the teacher who marks the paper. I remember when we were in our primary school we used to have this sort of thing and we used to write little bit and then start counting how many more words were left and in this process used to forget what needs to be written next

[um]

My understanding is that children are not told how many words to write in the KES exam at all; they are given around 30 minutes to produce a piece of writing.

I would imagine that examiners are looking for quality rather than quantity when judging the strength of a child's writing.

Obviously anything below 100 words may be a little too brief, but I have not seen any evidence from my ds1 or other children who previously sat for KES that they are instructed to write 200 words.

[poiuyt]

I think sometimes they have to write a poem too. This was a few years ago, and this could be cyclic!