11 Plus Exams Forum

Can someone confirm to me what level is more realistic for the VR paper: S. Daughtry or GL example papers. My dd's tutor does not seem concerned that my dad can get 70/85 on a GL (nfer Nelson) paper but only 55/80 on an S.D paper. He says the GL are the level required.
Any tutors out there or parents with vast experience and intuition on this given that we never see an actual paper?
Thanks

All I can tell you, is that on the day, DD2 scored 73/80. She was working on SD Bright Sparks, Walsh 1 - 3 and GL VR 2 months before the test and was scoring anything between 70/80 to 80/80 on them. I have to be honest and say that we pretty much ditched GL papers in early August, in favour of the more challenging stuff but it's impossible to say if this helped on the day or not?

The vocab on SD is in places, slightly more challenging than GL and Walsh is definitely more challenging overall. Not being in the position of seeing past VR papers, it's so hard to gauge the level of published GL papers.

Who can say hand-on-heart, that GL is the level required? What we can say with some conviction, is that GL write the VR paper for CSSE

PLease don't lose heart, if us DIY'ers without any teaching experience or training can do it, you can too You're on here - so you already care enough to make it work

My DD always scored in the 90%s for GL that is 75/80, 76/80, 78/80 and so on for mocks. For the final she got 68/80 which is 85%. According to DD the GL papers were easy but the real paper was hard.
DS scored in the 80%s and 90%s for GL but he scored only 71% for the real papers. This is my experience. We know that we have to practice the GL type of questions & that are those 21 types.
GL is good for mocks so that DCs can score highly and feel confident but for practice that is not enough. The level required is not the GL that you get for practice from CSSE or in shops that I can tell you. If your DD is scoring high in GL then it is time to do some others that she gets low marks on.

Thank you both for your honest replies. That is my gut feel as well. Going to start hammering the S.D. ones, I bought the second pack yesterday
I think my dd's tutor is just happy to go along with what he has always done, shows with the amount of help he has given us for CEM - mind you that is untutorable I suppose (said with sarcasm, don't truly believe that at all !)

There's a fine line between challenging them so that they can move on up a level and trashing their confidence. I feel sure you'll both face every glitch and backward step as a "learning experience" on that learning curve. That's all you can do, to be honest.

When they attempt Walsh or SD, you can take one of several approaches - you can

1. forewarn them that they may well find it a little difficult, perhaps a little different to what they've been used to. Or

2. you can let them get on with it and after, if it's been a little "floptastic", you can heap praise on them, telling them how proud you are because everyone finds these really hard and they've done well.

Whether you choose 1 or 2, or another option, as long as you praise them to the moon and back, no matter what the outcome, then it's all good I can vividly remember DD2 looking and feeling like she'd conquered Everest, when she survived a notoriously hard paper In a way, the mark was irrelevant; her confidence grew because she'd attempted it

You still have time - please try not to worry - it will all come together. Speed is something that will certainly improve

a) with practice and

b) a good set of sound exam technique skills.

No-one has to slavishly follow their tutor, especially if they have the time and wherewithal to supplement that tuition