11 Plus Exams Forum

stroudydad wrote:

Guest55 wrote:CEM does not produce practice material - clearly the 'other' publishers need to be challenged.

But they do produce the test... which as has been stated has included such topics:-)

In the interests of pedantry, if we are referring to my post then it was GL not CEM

GL state that they test curriculum content covered during the early part of Year 6 (not just Year 5) which probably explains my daughter's question. Not sure how they work out what is covered in the early part of Year 6 though and I have no idea what CEM do.

Hello everyone and sorry to hijack the thread (I've been lurking for a while here)

On the topic of algebra or not
My son is in Y3 and recently he came home and shared a problem teacher gave him during math lesson that he found challenging. It was stated in abstract terms like this:

If a + b = 36 and a is twice b, find a and b

He eventually solved it using trial and error, but it took a while. Is that how they are supposed to do it?

Obviously it's trivial to solve using basic algebra but I tried to teach him and it just doesn't click

The Bucks GL [new test] is quite clear that is only tests to the end of Year 5 - so this is down to the group arranging the contract.

dadadad wrote:Hello everyone and sorry to hijack the thread (I've been lurking for a while here)

On the topic of algebra or not
My son is in Y3 and recently he came home and shared a problem teacher gave him during math lesson that he found challenging. It was stated in abstract terms like this:

If a + b = 36 and a is twice b, find a and b

He eventually solved it using trial and error, but it took a while. Is that how they are supposed to do it?

Obviously it's trivial to solve using basic algebra but I tried to teach him and it just doesn't click

If they don't understand the concept of algebra then there's no point in going there just yet. The whole substitution thing can be confusing.
Bar modelling is far better IMO and the pictorial concept is far easier to teach

I think the Bucks Y5 ruling is a sensible one. Hopefully other GL regions will catch on.