practice papers versus actual test
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hernebay mum
practice papers versus actual test
Just thought I'd share our experience from this january!!!!!!
My son began preparation with practice papers about march last year, he was always above average at school, but from year 5 onwards the teachers had noticed a considerable improvement with his attitude and maturity, and the teachers felt confident with him doing the kent test.
We used mostly the nfer papers, but we also tried some bonds, to add a bit of variety.
From word go he could achieve a consistent pass with the verbal papers, of over 85%.
The non verbal it took him a while to grasp the different methods , but this was actually his best topic in the end.
With the maths, his first paper ( even though his sats were very good of a 4b in year 5 ), he only achieved about 50% on the nfer paper- to which I then began panicking!!, over time and breaking down each topic within the maths and looking at the variations within this we and he could certainly see an improvement. But to reinforce this we had him tutuored for the last 3 months prior to the test (mathS only as we were still convinced that this was his weakest subject out of the 3). Towards nov/dec he was achieving 90% consistently with his maths, and his tutor was very pleased with his progress and discharged us in december!!
However after the test he was quite horrified at how difficult the verbal was, the coded questions made no sense to him at all, and his confidence was knocked as i think he was expecting that paper to be quite straight forward- he guessed at around 20 he thinks, but that included 8 at the last minute due to timing.The boy next to him was in floods of tears, unable to be consoled apparantly!
The non verbal again caught him out as the format was changed compared to the practice papers, there were only 4 sections of 18 questions and 1 section was explained to them that was new, never been seen before!!!
The maths he found quite easy !!!!!!!!!!!
The results will be available 01/03, but I just wanted to share this experience, as I was very confident with his practice papers and then totally not prpeared for his descrption of what actually happened!!
I hope this may help anyone for their child in the future- but basically expect the unexpected!!!
My son began preparation with practice papers about march last year, he was always above average at school, but from year 5 onwards the teachers had noticed a considerable improvement with his attitude and maturity, and the teachers felt confident with him doing the kent test.
We used mostly the nfer papers, but we also tried some bonds, to add a bit of variety.
From word go he could achieve a consistent pass with the verbal papers, of over 85%.
The non verbal it took him a while to grasp the different methods , but this was actually his best topic in the end.
With the maths, his first paper ( even though his sats were very good of a 4b in year 5 ), he only achieved about 50% on the nfer paper- to which I then began panicking!!, over time and breaking down each topic within the maths and looking at the variations within this we and he could certainly see an improvement. But to reinforce this we had him tutuored for the last 3 months prior to the test (mathS only as we were still convinced that this was his weakest subject out of the 3). Towards nov/dec he was achieving 90% consistently with his maths, and his tutor was very pleased with his progress and discharged us in december!!
However after the test he was quite horrified at how difficult the verbal was, the coded questions made no sense to him at all, and his confidence was knocked as i think he was expecting that paper to be quite straight forward- he guessed at around 20 he thinks, but that included 8 at the last minute due to timing.The boy next to him was in floods of tears, unable to be consoled apparantly!
The non verbal again caught him out as the format was changed compared to the practice papers, there were only 4 sections of 18 questions and 1 section was explained to them that was new, never been seen before!!!
The maths he found quite easy !!!!!!!!!!!
The results will be available 01/03, but I just wanted to share this experience, as I was very confident with his practice papers and then totally not prpeared for his descrption of what actually happened!!
I hope this may help anyone for their child in the future- but basically expect the unexpected!!!
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Guest
My daughter also said the verbal reasoning was really tough and others in her class thought so too. I actually heard from the headmaster of her school that he thought the VR paper this year was the toughest he has seen in many years. The only consoling thought is that if they all thought it was tough, the pass mark may be lower. Good luck to your son!
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kentmum1
My son also thought the NVR was the hardest of the three and had to guess a few. However, he said he found the verbal straightforward and finished with 10 mins to check over. His friend, though, said the codes were hard and he couldn't see what he thought were the answers on the answer sheet. They all thought the maths was quite easy. He got a 4C in his Y5 maths but 5's in his english, which his stronger subject. However, even though son seems to have found tests manageable, you never know how they are reacting under pressure - not reading questions, etc so am not willing to feel too confident about it! Am starting to feel quite nervous at the thought of that envelope! There has been A NUMBER OF programmes with the dreaded envelope on recently and I can't quite believe it will be us soon!
Good luck!
Good luck!
