Format of 11 Plus exam

Eleven Plus (11+) in Essex

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ibiscc
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2008 3:20 pm
Location: essex

Format of 11 Plus exam

Post by ibiscc »

Interesting reading the comments about the 2008 entry results. I am hoping my child will sit it this November. I was a bit shocked to hear of children being sick and crying in the exam room. Can anyone give me an understanding of how the day goes? Which paper is first? What is the time gap between papers?
mel25
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:21 pm

Post by mel25 »

not wanting to put you off but i found the whole experience traumatic! yes there were children being sick and crying, and one child in my dd's room had to be taken out. thankfully my dd was not affected and has gained a place at shsg, but we always instilled in her to try her best and that it wasn't the end of the world. when she came out of the exam she had a big smile on her face, it was just me who had been in tears!
i think the key is to try and play it down, no matter how you feel,and not to put too much pressure on them. good luck!!
DiW
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:16 am
Location: Essex

Post by DiW »

Hi
Is your child sitting the CSSE exam in Essex?

My daughter was in the afternoon sitting at CCHS. I would agree that the whole experience was very tense - particularly waiting with her for registration to open and for her to go through. It was even worse waiting for her afterwards as her group in the hall came out about 20 minutes after everyone else.

When she came out she (and most of the others I saw come out) seemed a bit shell shocked rather than upset. She did say some of the other girls had been a bit upset in the exam itself.

I think it is important to try and prepare them for just how many girls (or boys) there will be taking the exam so that they expect it and are not overwhelmed by it on the day. It certainly brought it home to me how much competition there was. Make sure that they have everything with them that they need so that there is no last minute panic (rearranging her pencils on the desk gave my daughter something to focus on for the 20 mins that she had to wait for the exam to start)

They did the English paper first then straight into the maths paper. They then had a 15 minute break and finished with the VR paper. Quite intense for 10 year olds!

Good luck!

All you can do is bolster their confidence as much as possible. My daughter said that it helped her to imagine that I was sat beside her sa
capers123
Posts: 1865
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 9:03 pm
Location: Gloucestershire

Post by capers123 »

I can only comment at the moment from the viewpoint af an appeals panel member - but we often ask "how was your child on the day of the exam, and what where they like when they came out" - partly as a filler question, partly to draw out more informations.

Anyhow, we get the whole range of replies from "she was quite chirpy" "happy", "smiling" through to "in tears - didn't finish the paper" (not finishing doesn't mean you've failed, by the way), "Stressed out" and "traumatised". These answers can be from children who were sitting in the same room.

One thing I have noticed is that there's absolutely no correlation between how the child feels after the exam and the actual result.

With the shoe on the other foot, our eldest is probably taking the exam next November. We're saying it will probably be fun - after all, all the practice questions (yes, started tutoring 3 weeks ago) are fun - child always enjoys them, we enjoy them and the tutor does as well - she's been known to work out the answers for fun rather than looking them up. The words '11+', 'stress' and 'worry' just don't get linked in our house.
Capers
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