A week to go b4 Verbal Reasoning test - which downloads???

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 1:40 pm

I am not sure if anyone will be about today to answer this but just in case....

My DD is doing the dreaded St Michaels resit next Sat in VR. Unfortunately she had already done all the test VR papers that we had before she sat the exam the first time in Nov. I only found this fantastic forum after getting the letter from the head after the exam. My question is this, with only a week to go, which of the VR tutor downloads should I get, I am not really sure what the difference between the different versions so would appreciate any advice!

Thanks a million and Happy New Year to all of you.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 2:02 pm

The St. Michael's exams are set by NFER, therefore the most suitable interactive self-timing and marking CDs are:

The Tutors Verbal Reasoning Volume 1 - covering the question types by setting 50 questions of each type of the 21 styles of question known to be on the NFER database

The Tutors Verbal Reasoning Volume 2 - providing practice tests of 12 papers containing 100 questions each

Post by **patricia** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 2:06 pm

Dear Guest

Please hold fire for the moment, trying to get clarification, there is differing opinion as to which publisher St. Michaels use ie NFER, Bond [unlikely] or Moray House.

If its Moray House, then The Tutors are not applicable.

Patricia

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:10 pm

My daughters both used NFER and got in, so do use the Tutors papers. They are applicable and anyway we don't know which papers St Michael's have used in the past and which papers they will use on the 12th. Try the Athey papers as well. You can buy them from WHSmith.

Post by **patricia** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:18 pm

Dear guest

Athey and Nfer are not comparable.

At the moment we are not sure who is publishing the test.

The choices are...

1] You can find out the correct publishers and practice the correct material.

2] You can choose from a widley diverse amount of VR on the market, therefore teaching a huge amount of incorrect material.

I am waiting clarification from Forumadmin.

Patricia

Post by **patricia** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:39 pm

Dear Original Guest

This is the reply from Forumadmin

forumadmin wrote:Hi P,

My understanding is that the Exams at St M's are being re-set due to Moray House being widely available and practiced pre-actual exam, therefore the school governers have elected to set an NFER exam next week.

Lee

Assuming the test is Multiple Choice.The Tutors are good quality practice, You may want to use the pen and paper version as that is format of the test [CDs are good for in between practice, as you only have a week to go, pen and paper is more useful.]

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/epaper ... =f&c=1&p=6

Athey is not relevant to NFER.

Patricia

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:46 pm

Patricia, that advice is very good. The problem is the school will not tell you who publishes the papers. I know I have asked the headmistress. The school will only say that practice papers are available from good bookshops. My daughter last year told me that one of the types of questions was to find the middle answer. Athey have these questions and she remembered having done them while practising.
I found the Tutors papers very good and also Bright Sparks. I am recommending the Tutors as the original question was which papers to download.
Historically the St Michael's VR has been quite easy compared to Latymer and HBS. Who knows what sort of paper the replacement will be. I wish the Forumadmin the best of luck in getting any info out of St Michael's.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:49 pm

Dear Patricia and Forumadmin,
I stand corrected. Well done for getting that information so quickly.

Post by **patricia** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:00 pm

Dear Guest [too many guests, without names]

Finding the middle answer is most definitely not Nfer, Last year when your daughter took the test [ and this year] they used Moray House, which is widely available to teachers and tutors, hence the cheating outcry in both Warks and St. Michaels.

I would assume, due to the outcry, they will not be using Moray House for re testing. Forumadmin does have good contacts and many schools tend to use NFER, so lets hope this is the case.

I agree that Bright Sparks is a very good resource for Nfer testing.

P

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:17 pm

Wow - what wonderful responses, I am the original poster (am going to register now, I agree that so many Guests gets confusing!)

I think I will download the Tutors papers as well as the epapers as I think it is most likely that St Ms will use the NFER papers from what everyone has said. She will be doing lots of written papers but I wanted to use the downloads as well as she finds them more fun to do!!

Thanks to everyone and in particular Patricia for such speedy helpful replies and Happy New Year to you all.