11 Plus Exams Forum

Please could someone help me in understanding this question

Violin trumpet piano cello flute

You need to find two words that are not related in same way.

Answer is trumpet and flute

Thanks in advance

Violin, cello and piano have strings, a bit of a trick as you don't naturally think of a piano as a stringed instrument.

Edit to add, the sad thing is I am sure I've seen the exact same question recently on checking, Susan D Further Practice page 13, her version is,

trumpet cornet piano guitar saxophone

The trick here for DD was where does cornet go?

Wind : trumpet saxophone (cornet)

so odd two out

String : piano guitar

stevew61 wrote:Violin, cello and piano have strings, a bit of a trick as you don't naturally think of a piano as a stringed instrument.

Is this sort of question seriously being used in a modern 11+? Wouldn't it just be easier to ask people if they're white and middle class and have done with it?

Hi,
we also had to look each one up to see what they were looking for and had decided the flute and trumpet were ones you blow. had to look up in dictionary, def. tricky question. now we have to make sure they know their instuments lol.

xyzzy wrote:Is this sort of question seriously being used in a modern 11+? Wouldn't it just be easier to ask people if they're white and middle class and have done with it?

I find this comment offensive - I know of a lot of non white, non middle class children learning to play musical instruments.

It is really just a test of basic general knowledge, not whether or not they play an instrument - maybe watching B Britten's young person's guide to the orchestra? - done this year at the last night of the proms.

My DD has just sat her exams and the instrument question came up in loads of the practice papers we looked at. I googled 'stringed', 'woodwind', 'brass' instruments etc and gave her the lists on index cards to help and it worked.