Non-verbal questions

[Maria]

Hi,

Have just heard that my son will have to sit a non-verbal question paper and a verbal reasoning paper - previous to this the school just set verbal reasoning papers. I'm in lincolnshire near Grantham and just wonder whether I'm going to be able to coach him myself now. There seemed to be enough different types of verbal reasoning questions to cover without non-verbal ones as well. I feel very panicky now and wonder if I'm going to be able to do it. What to people think? Should I send him to a tutor? What non-verbal books should I buy? Help!!

Maria

[Guest]

Hi,

I thought that all the Lincolnshire grammar schools used the Lincolnshire Grammar Schools Consortium Examination and that it consisted of 2 VR NFER tests.
Is this changing for all schools? Or is it just in Grantham (King's, I assume??). Most of the county's schools have not yet published their admissions policies for next year.
If the test is definitely changing I would ask the school itself for info about it. If it is going to be an NFER test then you could look at NFER published papers to get a measure of what it may entail.

Sara

[Guest]

Hi Maria,

Try the Bond how to do NVR. Its easy to follow, and after doing some Bond Practice papers on NVR too, I got mine to try the NFER for familiaristion, as some questions are set in a different format, but he got 90%correct. So it works for us, so far

Also book can be purchased from this site. Excellent delivery time, and reduced price to boot.

BW

[Catherine]

Hi Maria,

In my experience, if your board is NFER, you don't need to spend as much time on NVR than than on VR because there are not so many question types, and the types are not too different from each other.
The NFER published practice papers are divided in 5/10mn sections. Practicing for this amount on time on a regular basis worked very well for my son.
It is very important that you find out the exact format of your child's test in order to use on the right kind of papers.

Best of luck

Catherine

[Maria]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. on the off chance last week i phoned King's school to check it was just the verbal reasoning papers my son would sit. i was informed that they have only just decided to change to one vr paper and one nvr paper - it was hot off the press. Our headteacher didn't know. King's informed me that there's going to be a meeting first week in April for all primary heads. Also spoke to head of KGGS (girl's grammar school) - she's a neighbour. She said Licolnshire's been wanting this for some time as its deemed fairer to pupils. Sounds as though it's the whole of Lincolnshire that could be changing.

Maria
I thought that all the Lincolnshire grammar schools used the Lincolnshire Grammar Schools Consortium Examination and that it consisted of 2 VR NFER tests.
Is this changing for all schools? Or is it just in Grantham (King's, I assume??). Most of the county's schools have not yet published their admissions policies for next year.
If the test is definitely changing I would ask the school itself for info about it. If it is going to be an NFER test then you could look at NFER published papers to get a measure of what it may entail.

Sara

[Maria]

Hi

Thanks for your replies. I feel a bit less panicky now but will rest a bit easy once I know what the grammar schools are going to tell the headteachers re: practise paper advice. I've noted all your comments down in case I don't get any advice from them, then I'll follow yours.

Thanks
Maria

p.s.

Sara, I did reply to you re: if all schools in Lincs will now be doing one VR and one NVR paper - see replies in this section.