11 Plus Exams Forum

My son did a verbal walsh paper this morning, normal averages between 85 - 95 today his mark dropped significantly, are these papers harder.

Many thanks

The Walsh papers are harder. Some of the Walsh papers require BODMAS which is not used on the GL papers and the vocab is challenging.

Patricia wrote:With Walsh I would cross off any maths questions that you need knowledge of BODMAS. I also explain to my students that these are hard , so do not worry if you get them wrong. When completing vocab sections children will often say "what does that mean" My stock reply, " I am not telling you, you have to make your good educated guess first, then we will discuss it"

I use Walsh for practicing those "harder" questions. Sometimes I never use them, it is child dependent whether I reach as far as Walsh.

Hi
this might be the wrong place for me to ask but I wonder about the reverence that is given to the Walsh books as preparation for the 11+. DD1 sat last year and I was reassured that these were the books to use for VR. The first couple were a bit daunting and she scored around 65 - 70% unseen however by the final book she scored 99 - 100% on all of the tests without having been through the papers previously.

On this basis I thought she would be well prepapred but sadly no Since then I have wondered anyone has had a similar experience or if she just panicked in the exam room (she only sat one GS exam).

I do use Walsh, but only as extra for my top end pupils as both vocabulary and style of questions can be different from the actual exam. I've never heard of anyone stating that they are "the" books to use. I think of them more as an extra resource and take sections from them instead.

We are in Bucks and I did use Walsh with my DD at home, but not exclusively and only towards the end as an extra challenge for the vocab side of things. I too noticed a drop in a few marks initially but thought that it was worth stretching her a bit more and scores went back up with later papers. She did pass but I don't think it was down to any one type of book. Variety is the spice of life and all that.
SuperMummy - I am sorry it didn't work out for your DD, sometimes it is hard to find a reason for things. Sounds like it was more a panic than ability, if she was getting 99-100% in Walsh papers.

Walsh are not totally GL assesment friendly.

They use brackets in 2 types of maths, a knowledge of BODMAS is therefore required. It is not necessary to teach BODMAS for GL assesment.

In book three, for some reason they use an old VR question type which is not related to the stock 21 types

I only use these books for session work only, rarely as a test. They have their use in the market but they are not the books to have , they are part of a wider range of books/tests from various publishers that are relevant to the 21 types of VR.

Patricia

The author of the Walsh books is a Kingston based Tiffin tutor. I imagine many Kingston parents feel these are the books to get!

My son took the Tiffin test last year and in his opinion the standard of the real VR test was nearer the level of the Bright Sparks tests.

Anyone looking for VR material for Tiffins or any other area using GL Assessment as thier test provider, should not keep to one author/publisher for their preparation a range is more suitable as long as they cover the correct 21 types. Walsh are are a good resource but should not be used as a stand alone publisher.

Bright Sparks are indeed a very good resource, I use them as my penultimate papers. I only use GL Assessment at the end as they look exactly the same as the real tests.

Patricia