11 Plus Exams Forum

I've noticed that my DD consistently gets lower scores on the SD tests (pack 1 and 2) compared to the GLA tests (pack 2). The difference is something like 5-10% and she also takes longer to complete the tests.

This makes me question which is the better representation of the difficulty level of the real exam papers? You would expect the GLA papers to be a closer match, does anybody have any thoughts or knowledge on this?

Much appreciated,

Stu

The Bright Sparks series from Susan Daughtrey are graded in difficulty with 1 and 5 being the "easiest" followed by 2,6 and 3, 7 and finally 4,8. Having used them over many years for the Bucks 11 plus I firmly believe that they were the closest in difficulty to the real test.

The GLA pack 1 ony contain 15 of the 21 different types and are generally an easier set. Pack 2 contain all 21 types with a few odd Zs in that some of the papers have 4 Zs (real test only has 2) and some of the Zs use the term "which statement CANNOT be true" instead of CAN be true.

Patricia

Do you think that elements of the susan daughtrey papers make useful c e m prep? Do you think z type questions from gl and daughtrey are good for c e m ?

In short no they are not useful for CEM.

If you already have the papers then yes use the vocab sections and the Zs for added practice. But new parents to the system should avoid as there are too many unnecessary questions - wasting time, effort and money.

Verbal Reasoning for CEM covers comprehension, cloze, synonyms, antonyms, possibly jumbled sentences and odd one out.

Patricia

Can I just ask, which Susan Daughtrey papers from the Bright Sparks are "closest" to the real paper ? with 1 and 5 being the "easiest" followed by 2,6 and 3, 7 and finally 4,8.

Would it be the middle range papers ?

Thanks

The difference in difficulty is not great. Test 4 has notoriously caught a few of my children off guard.

I would always issue them in the graded order of 1,5,2,6,3,7,4, 8

The general difficulty across the papers is relevant to the real tests.

Patricia

Do you think that gl assessment English familiarisation papers are any use for any aspect of c e m 11plus?

Hello fndz
Like Susan Is there any similar sequence of tests for GLA Papers ?

patricia wrote:The Bright Sparks series from Susan Daughtrey are graded in difficulty with 1 and 5 being the "easiest" followed by 2,6 and 3, 7 and finally 4,8. Having used them over many years for the Bucks 11 plus I firmly believe that they were the closest in difficulty to the real test.

The GLA pack 1 ony contain 15 of the 21 different types and are generally an easier set. Pack 2 contain all 21 types with a few odd Zs in that some of the papers have 4 Zs (real test only has 2) and some of the Zs use the term "which statement CANNOT be true" instead of CAN be true.

Patricia

Hi Patricia, thanks for your reply, that's really useful information. My DD is getting 75-80%on the SD papers, which I guess means she's not too far off (she's born in July, so the weighting may help her a bit). I was aware that the GLA pack 1 was easier, but from what you are saying I presume that you think pack 2 is also a bit easier than the real exam?

Bit of a shame as she is getting around 85% on those