Changes for 2015 entry.

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MacPac
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2012 3:05 pm

Changes for 2015 entry.

Post by MacPac »

What difference do you think these changes will make? I'm panicking now. I felt under enough pressure to get DS2 through after getting DS1 through as it was!

I'm being totally thick (My excuse is I'm not well haha) is there still going to be a VR paper?

MacPac

Just checked the website again and they've updated it further. From what I can gather the VR will be incorporated into the English paper. Creative writing is now going to be part of the test. This is what concerns me most as my DS hates creative writing and all the mums of boys I talk to say the same.

Heading off to get different books..... Haha
Last edited by MacPac on Thu Nov 07, 2013 10:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
Dad999
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:36 pm

Re: Changes for 2015 entry.

Post by Dad999 »

Please can you explain what the changes are.
MacPac
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2012 3:05 pm

Re: Changes for 2015 entry.

Post by MacPac »

MESSAGE FOR PARENTS

Changes to the Selection Test for 2015 entry

The CSSE group has decided to make some changes to the Selection Test for 2015 entry.

The decision has been taken in order to bring the papers more in line with the expectations of Level 5, KS2, National Curriculum, for both English and Mathematics and to better reflect the educational experience of primary school pupils.

There will not be a discrete Verbal Reasoning Paper.

New English Paper

The new English paper (in line with the expectation of Level 5, KS2, National Curriculum) will comprise:

Comprehension, grammar and vocabulary questions
Two pieces of creative writing
Applied reasoning (literacy/verbal)


The paper will last 1 hour, with some additional reading time and will be worth 60 marks in total.

New Mathematics paper

The new Mathematics paper (in line with the expectations of Level 5, KS2, National Curriculum) will comprise:
Questions consistent with KS2 of the National Curriculum
Applied reasoning (mathematical/non-verbal)

The paper will last 1 hour and be worth 60 marks in total.

One set of familiarisation papers will be available to download from the CSSE website by January 2014.

Sorry I'm doing this from my phone so it's difficult.
talea51
Posts: 522
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 5:10 pm

Re: Changes for 2015 entry.

Post by talea51 »

All I can say is hallelujah and why, oh why, couldn't they have done this for this year!

The VR is what really screwed my dd, she dropped loads on the VR paper but the English and Maths papers were great scores. My dds creative writing is (without meaning to sound too biased) superb so I am quite sad that these changes have happened too late for her.

I appreciate that those who are preparing for 2015 feel that they don't have a lot of time and that it's very late in the game to change the playing field but... to me - this actually sounds better. Most children who are attempting the 11+ will be level 5 in year 5 so they should have covered that work at school which is great. It just means you will need to make sure that your child has covered the KS2 curriculum up to Level 5 but you would have had to do that for the previous 11+ exam in any case. Any work that you have previously done on this will not be wasted or lost.

Also, it means that VR will not carry the same kind of weight as it did. Plus it's less time, the children will be less tired although two one hour papers is quite tough. It also means that children will be able to screw up in areas of weakness and perform well in areas of strength and not be too disadvantaged by it.

I really think this is very good news especially for those of us with dcs at state primaries rather than indies.
ahap
Posts: 1515
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2011 2:47 pm
Location: Ēastseaxe

Re: Changes for 2015 entry.

Post by ahap »

Good, better, best for all I feel.
'What we have learned is like a handful of earth; What we have yet to learn is like the whole world.' Auvaiyaar.
mikedellfarm
Posts: 269
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 9:26 am

Re: Changes for 2015 entry.

Post by mikedellfarm »

No more mirror codes.. what will I do with my life.

It all sounds very sensible to me.
toolate
Posts: 194
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:29 pm

Re: Changes for 2015 entry.

Post by toolate »

Hours and hours spent practising codes, can now be spent on something more useful and relevant, like grammar, adverbs and spelling...all of which were previously much less relevant from a scoring perspective.

Interesting that they didn't opt for the CEM since changes were considered necessary...
Daogroupie
Posts: 11100
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Changes for 2015 entry.

Post by Daogroupie »

It is great news. Boys are very capable of exceptional creative writing, there is no reason at all why they can't do it if they apply themselves. This skill will equip them well for Secondary School so this is a good thing for boys, not a bad thing. DG
pinkrabbit38
Posts: 568
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 3:20 pm

Re: Changes for 2015 entry.

Post by pinkrabbit38 »

Ok so the exam needed to change but why do they wait until the present year 5's have already started their 11+ preparation??
They could have decided this 6 months ago!
Manana
Posts: 710
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:22 pm

Re: Changes for 2015 entry.

Post by Manana »

Is this new news today? I doubt many y5 parents are aware of this yet?!

It's probably a good thing but I agree, a bit of warning would have been nice. I bet they'll do this-change the format, I mean, every year or two to keep people on their toes!

Sounds like all the vocab/meaning questions will be shoved on the English paper and the sequences/brackets ones will go in with the maths. Is it still worth focusing on the question types?

The creative writing will be much more arduous to mark-I bet the results won't come back in 3 weeks like now!!

How do you teach creative writing then....?!
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