11 Plus Exams Forum

I am tutoring my son at home, started preparing him for tests a week ago. I have tried to get him into a tutoring session however have not been able to find someone who will take him on at this stage, tutors are like gold dust, but we have not given up yet, so still looking for a tutor!!!!

Anyhow in our current situation I really need to be focusing on what questions I need to prepare my son for, he is finding comprehensions hard and I'm still not quite sure what is involved in the two 45 minute papers, Although I have read the contents of the following link;

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 423#p17118" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I still want to know how the comprehension section of the paper is set, as far as i have understood, it sometimes consists of 1 or 2 text passages where the answers can also be given in Multiple Choice answers.

Then there is the proof reading passage, with spelling, grammar and punctuation errors, which the children need to correct.

or a L-O-N-G cloze activity.....what does this entail?

Finally there are missing words, shuffled sentences questions, are these part of verbal reasoning section of the test?

Are all sections mixed up? Are there a separate section on synonyms, and antonyms? What resource can I use to teach him these at the level expected of him?

Thank you

Please help? 1

Hi gulistaan3, My DC sat the test almost 2 years ago and I tutored them myself. I will try to answer your questions but I can't remember exactly how things were in the paper so apologies if I get anything wrong. I'm sure there are people with more recent experience who will be along shortly.

I believe 2 years ago there were 2 comprehension passages with multiple choice answers. I found the Manchester Grammar past papers an excellent resource for this.

I don't think there has been a proof reading passage for a few years, although that doesn't mean there won't be one this year.

The cloze activity is a passage with some letters taken out of words. The students have to fill in the missing letters, so they have to understand the text fully enough to work out what the word is and be able to spell! I made my own cloze passages by copy and pasting novel extracts and newspaper articles into word and removing letters. Great fun!!

There are "verbal reasoning" acivities which involve synonyms/antonyms/shuffled sentences etc. They all test vocabulary knowledge, something which, to be honest is difficult to teach in a few months but is rather built up over years of reading and discussion.

I hope this helps.