11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi Everyone!
I'm new to this, having been asked to help a friend's son with the Verbal Reasoning part (he isn't first language English). I'm a bit concerned that I might not prepare him for all the different question types. We've got the CGP 10-minute tests on VR Vocabulary, VR Cloze and VR Comprehension and we're wading our way through them. I think some of the vocabulary questions are incredibly difficult, don't you? I have to rack my brains sometimes! Do you think the Bond books are better? Just wondering if we should also be doing Jumbled sentences and anything else not covered by the books above. Any suggestions for complete tests? Can you get complete tests for the VR part without the NVR bits? I saw mention of Mocks somewhere. Does anyone know anything about them? I'd be very grateful for any advice.

We did Bond CEM books as well as CGP.

Bond Maths were harder

Bond Verbal were often written answers or had 2 point answers. So while I used them and they were good in terms of different questions, CGP resembled the exam format more closely.

We mostly used CGP resources based on comments I found on this forum. We used the familiarisation work from the grammar schools, a pack of practice tests from Letts and a couple of CGP tests also. I think some of the questions in that lot were jumbled sentences, but I don't know whether they are required. I think CEM reserve the right to throw in just about anything. DD couldn't tell me anything regarding the questions, which is quite frustrating as DS may be going through it soon!
We didn't do all that much in the way of specific 11+ practice books; we mostly tried to improve her general skills and knowledge through day to day activities. I tried to use more complex vocabulary in my daily speech and we read more complex books together. We also discussed the news etc as that widened her general knowledge. (Not sure how much use this was for the 11+, but as I say, we really didn't want to make it all about the one test in case she didn't qualify.)
I just searched online for companies offering mocks in person. DD just did the one to get the feel of doing an exam.

We are currently using Atom Learning online, they do mock tests as well as practise that moves with your Childs ability. Not the cheapest of options granted, but its working out very well for us so far. It even has CEM tests that are specifically for each area that uses CEM within the country, however, they could be leading me a merry dance with that as I have no idea how much CEM tests differ depending on different council areas!
We may look at some books too but at the moment the content on the website is proving a good brain workout for 20/30 mins a day or longer if he's enjoying it.

+1 for CEM, the 10 mins test area good starting point before moving onto the full practice books and then assessments,