11 Plus Exams Forum

DS2 is coming to the end of age 7-8 VR book and although on the whole it is quite easy I felt that some of the compound excercises were hard. Hubby who is a genius when it comes to English normally gets the answers within a split second - I take far longer - but even he has to stop and think.

Here were the examples on paper 20:

BIRD FOOD FRONT BED
BOAT TIME BELT LIKE
BERRY OUT BIRD MAIL
DRESS SHIP AXE FIELD

I know for a fact my son wouldn't have heard of Blackmail or Blackout and Battledress and Battleaxe. Does anyone think these are hard for a 7-8 year old?

Hi t.i.p.s.y

If you look at the front cover of the books for the dates that they were first published you will find a clue as to why this vocabulary is present.

The vocabulary of post-war Britain extended through the 1970's and early 80's. Retired teachers who were writing after this time tended to continue using such vocabulary.

Regards

Mike

Thanks Mike - would this type of vocabulary be used in exams or standardised tests now? He sat a vocab test for entry to his brothers school and got age 13years and 1 month in his vocab. He has a good vocab but even I thought the test must be pretty basic to get a score that high. So then he does this age 7-8 paper and I think there is quite a bit of discrepancy in his vocab test and what he's doing in these papers.

Ok so I was wrong and he got them all without any help. Just his dumb mother who can't do them!