11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi All,

My DS is in Y7 at AGSB and I am now working with my DD to prep for AGGS and SGS. Bearing in mind my DS had to prep for CEM and GL style papers, whereas my DD only has to prep for CEM - is this a disadvantage for the boys in Trafford?

I know there is significant overlap between the two exams, but I estimate my DS had to do about 25% more work.

Would be interested to hear the thoughts on anyone else who has been on this journey with both a DS and DD since AGGS joined the Trafford Consortium.

Hmmm...

In a word, yes.

Boy / girl twins. Non RC so little point in DD doing Loreto exam, so DD just did one exam.

DS sat AGSB, then consortium exam (for SGS), then St Ambrose. All completely different exams. I think last year, the timing was an issue too - very stressful day on the Saturday (AGSB exam particularly for those who wanted it as first choice, 3 hour exam) and then straight into the SGS exam less than 48 hours later (following Monday). They switched it round this year so that the consortium exam was the Monday, the AGSB paper was the following Saturday so more chance to rest in between.

I agree there is an overlap between the GL and the CEM so from a content point of view, lots of it was the same. However, there were some question types that were likely to come up on one paper and not the other (CLOZE on CEM, coding in the VR on GL) and of course the exam technique is quite different (you can miss some out and go back on the GL & you manage your own time for say the 40 minute paper), CEM is much more rigid on the times for individual sections, and you can't go back between sections. Its definitely tougher for boys!

So the boys have 3 potential chances to pass but the girls only have 2.....just a different way of looking at it

So the boys have 3 potential chances to pass but the girls only have 2.....just a different way of looking at it

As a parent, yes, absolutely. Trying to explain that to a 10 year old boy that he's "lucky" to have extra work and extra papers to sit as he gets more chances is a tough call

You choose to enter them for both tests - there is no need to do this.

Mandy21 wrote:

So the boys have 3 potential chances to pass but the girls only have 2.....just a different way of looking at it

As a parent, yes, absolutely. Trying to explain that to a 10 year old boy that he's "lucky" to have extra work and extra papers to sit as he gets more chances is a tough call

Exactly Mandy21 - thankfully DS was unaware that he had more material to cover than his female classmates. I think he would have found it a bit demotivating.

I do find it curious that people think that because we have a choice of whether to enter the exam process or not means we 'mustn't grumble' The fact that we choose to go down this path is kind of irrelevant to the fact that boys have to do more under the current system.

Let's see if AGSB decide to join the consortium for 2018 entry...

Girls entering Stretford and AGGS last year had to prep for both formats. Is merely reversed this year.

Girls entering Stretford and AGGS last year had to prep for both formats. Is merely reversed this year.

No, its not reversed this year.

Girls who took Alty and Stretford took 2 exams last year; they have one exam this year.

Boys who took Alty and Stretford took 2 exams last year; they have two exams this year.

Guest55 - that's right, we do choose to go down this route as parents and yes, we don't have to.

Most parents choose (as I did) to enter children for the local schools. In my case, the Altrincham Grammars and Sale Grammar (and St Ambrose for my DS but lets forget that for a minute).

As I said upthread, 2 children (boy and girl twins). So at the same time (not a couple of years apart) where they have been in the same class, had the same opportunities in life, similar academic ability, one of them needed to do more work and sit 2 exams to have a chance of going to those 2 schools, the other child only had one exam and had less work.

Don't get me wrong, I am jumping for joy that we live where we do and we had the chance to go for these schools and absolutely it was my choice to put them in for both schools' exams. But having made that decision, it is quite difficult to justify why they don't have to prepare in the same way.