11 Plus Exams Forum

The Warwickshire Admissions Forum has apparently agreed to use "two NFER Verbal Reasoning Tests in Test Centres" for children (like my daughter) who hope to go to grammar school in Sept 2008 and 2009.

Does anyone have any advice on preparing for these tests? Unfortunately, we are outside the immediate area of the schools, so won't have any direct help.

Thanks in advance.

There is another post in the Warwickshire area of the forum about this.

Hi RachelT

This question came up a few months ago, and someone from Warwickshire (in School Admissions, by the sound of their post) helpfully posted all the information about Moray house papers in reply! You can view the thread here:

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... .php?t=705

The proposed test sounds suspiciously similar to the Bucks & Wirral 11+ papers from NFER. 2 papers, 80 questions in 50 minutes for each paper, and 21 different question types used over the two papers. You will find a wealth of information on preparation for those tests here on the VR thread, and also on the Bucks & Wirral threads.

However, once the decision is final and Warwicks CC go public I suggest that you contact them for as much information as they are prepared to give you. It could be that some further question types will be included beyond those used in Bucks & Wirral, the test may be longer and may comprise more questions in total.

Sally-Anne

Has anybody previously used the Athey Educational Verbal Papers? Any comments on whether they resemble the NFER type or are easier / harder? Looking for more NFER type standard papers for Berks exam. Any comments/thoughts would be most appreciated.

Hello Mum

In my opinion Athey publications bear little resemblance to the NFER papers.

If you can get hold of a copy compare Athey Red Paper 2 to the free CD demo written by The Tutors or against the IPS question types. Then form your own opinion!!!

At this stage I would not worry too much whether you are using multiple-choice or standard format papers. Where NFER are the test providers there is little difference between the two formats, if you look at NFERs standard and multiple-choice preparation papers you will see they use the same questions.

What is important is that all material used in the early stages of preparation is considered as "practice" material and that the child should be using papers in the format in which they will sit the test closer to the test.

If Warwickshire approach the tests in the same way as the Wirral LEA then parents, irrespective of whether they are in catchment or not, will receive a familiarization pack to help the children prepare for the test. This familiarization pack should not be confused with the preparation papers that NFER sell which contain 15 question types whereas, in the case of Wirral and Bucks, the former contain 21 question types.

Regards

Mike

Thanks Mike for your response. I've downloaded the Tutors Practice Papers from this website. Are these papers different to the CD available in this website by Tutors? I do not want repeat questions. Please let me know if the CDs are different. If so, which CDs are more relevant (closest to NFER type).

Hello Mum

The Tutors e-papers, CD1 and CD3 contain completely different questions that are based around the NFER 21 type questions.

The Tutors published papers are the same as The Tutors e-papers. However, due to the formatting of the e-papers the answer sheets are slightly different.

CD1 covers all 21 NFER question types. There are 50 questions for eac type. The questions sets can be completed as often as you like.

CD3 contains 12 papers with 100 questions in each paper. This varies from the NFER in that in some LEAs there are two 80 question papers set. Neither of the NFER papers cover all 21 types (there is a crossover of types). The Tutors CD3 contains all 21 types in a single paper of 100 questions rather than 2 papers totalling 160 questions. The purpose of the CD is to introduce all the question types to the student, so that any problem areas can be identified and then CD1 can be used to revise.

It is important that children are working on papers as close to the format of the test that they are taking closer to the test, so The Tutors e-papers or published papers meet this need.

There are other publishers such as IPS and Susan Daughtery who also provide preparation material based on NFER tests.

Hope this helps

Regards

Mike

Thanks for all this information. The Admissions Service says we cannot register for the 11+ until the end of May 2007, when the "consultation period" is over... so presumably we can start getting official answers then!

A grammar school in our area told us preparing for Nelson verbal reasoning standard and multiple choice format. Is this nfer or Bond (Nelson Thornes)? Thanks.