11 Plus Exams Forum

I've searched the Forum but can't seem to find any recent posts on what might be a good score for these papers at this moment in time. Ds finding the NVR timing tight in particular but trying to finish the other papers ie; English/VR/Maths in 45 mins rather than the 50 minutes stated on the pack.
If your child used these as prep and passed, are you able to pass on guidance please of what sorts of scores they were achieving in these assessment papers?
Thank you.

Hi grgygirl,

I've just had a quick look at various assessment and test papers we did (maths/Eng/VR) and DS was around low-mid 80%'s at Easter time, although not terribly consistent and had some scores just below that. We moved on to GL and Letts exam test papers in the summer and by then he was getting over 90%. Most lost marks were on silly things - simple arithmetic errors or not reading the questions. I can't comment on NVR, as we didn't do those at all.

Aiming to complete the papers in a shorter time is a very good idea, as there is a lot of time pressure in the real exams and children have to work quickly. Exam technique and an ability to work under pressure are very important.

I don't know what scores your DS is getting at the moment, but if you are at all concerned, bear in mind there is still plenty of time for him to improve, so don't worry. We seemed to be unable to get higher scores for a while and then things suddenly took off.

Hi there, was about to post the same thing, my daughter is doing the CEM and GL test in September 2016. I am quite worried as she is stuck between 65%-75% in the practice papers. Occasionally getting in the 80's%. It is stressing me out as she seems to be stagnating at the same level for the past few weeks! What can I do?

sobz70 wrote:Hi there, was about to post the same thing, my daughter is doing the CEM and GL test in September 2016. I am quite worried as she is stuck between 65%-75% in the practice papers. Occasionally getting in the 80's%. It is stressing me out as she seems to be stagnating at the same level for the past few weeks! What can I do?

Maybe give her a bit of a break? She may be tired, so a week or so with no papers may do wonders sometimes...

Do you know why she is stuck on low scores? Is she running out of time or does she lack understanding of certain topics? If it's the latter, find out exactly what causes the problem, put the test papers to one side for now, and go over in detail with whatever she may be struggling with.

She doesn't know herself- sometimes it's timing she said, sometimes she has forgotten a topic she has done before or method. I really don't know how to help her as she seems to be lacking focus even though she really wants to do the test herself.

sobz70 wrote:She doesn't know herself- sometimes it's timing she said, sometimes she has forgotten a topic she has done before or method. I really don't know how to help her as she seems to be lacking focus even though she really wants to do the test herself.

In this case, the only thing you can do is sit down with her while she is doing the test, ask her to talk you through what she is doing and you should see what she is stumbling over. Make a list of all problem areas and put together a revision plan to practise those. Go back to test papers after you've sorted out the fundamentals. Carrying out with test papers and getting low scores all the time can be really demotivating.

Thanks for the suggestions. Will try!

Good luck!

I wouldn't call those scores low unless you are needing a high score for the likes of Tonbridge etc. In Kent test 2015 10/25 was all you needed to pass the maths test if August born, 12/25 if September born so less than 50%. Saying that DD was getting a high percentage in test papers that didn't translate to the exam due to time pressures - she still did very well and Kent was our back-up which in the end we didn't need to use. We used mock tests to identify the types of question she was struggling on and then just focused on those rather than a whole test much of which she knew. That helped us get over any black spots.

Good luck.

Thanks so much- no we just need a pass and even that seems impossible right now! Newstead is her first choice, then Townley then Dartford so for us it's a back up too - however I obviously would be grateful if she passed any of those school exams!
DD is summer born (July) I'm hoping it will work out for her in the end. Hopefully she will improve the scores over the next few months. Thanks so much for your advice and suggestions!