11 Plus Exams Forum

Didn't Tiffin Girls say there wouldn't be any VR in the English? Have I misunderstood? Here's the extract from their consultation document:

The proposal is therefore that the first stage of testing will comprise English and mathematics multiple choice questions. There will therefore no longer be any element of Verbal/Non-Verbal Reasoning in the School’s testing process. This is to enable the testing process to better reflect what applicants have been taught in the core subjects of English and mathematics as part of their primary education. There will be written exam papers in mathematics, reading and writing for those invited to the second stage of testing (as has been the case to date). The English and mathematics questions for both elements of the testing process will be designed to reflect the primary school curriculum and be of a standard that will be appropriate to determine admission to the School.

So what's all this VR rebranded as English that appeared in this morning's email??

How does that not swing things in favour of prep school kids who get VR lessons, unlike those at state primaries, and defeat the purpose of the changes as stated above?

Fine not to specify what's in the paper. But to specify what is NOT going to be in it, and then include it..... ??

I was totally lost when saw the "example questions"today! The English ones are just exactly same as Vr decoding style; while the maths look like far too basic. They said they are giving samples to "taste" the real paper!

Nat47: These tests would definitely favour any one who had been practicing VR as well in preparation for English & Maths papers. It seems that every one from our primary, sitting for 11plus, did VR type questions as well and ours is not a prep school.

Hi, I've been eagerly waiting for this additional email from Tiffin boys regarding sample questions. I've managed to get every other email from them so there's no question of it going to spam etc (though I'm checking there too )
Would it be possible for someone who did receive it, to post it here?

tiffinboys, are you saying that VR is taught at your state primary? Or that the children at your primary school sitting 11+ had private tuition in VR? If so, were they not perhaps preparing also for other schools (eg SET) which does not exclude VR type questions?

Either way, VR is not normally taught in state primary schools, as acknowledged by the Tiffin Girls' statement, which stated that no element of VR would be included in the new English test to more accurately reflect what is taught in state schools.

Can they really now include VR?

No, No, not taught at our primary. But, we recently realized that who ever is going to which ever tutor or doing DIY seems to be doing VR as well. Obviously, not as much as previous years children may have done.

I recently spoke to my friends in Sutton and other areas. They also were aware of VR and their kids had practised some VR papers.

For the time being, I guess that Tiffin papers 'might' include VR type questions which basically also relates to English & Maths. Athey, Daughtry, Walsh, Bond, GL and as well, Tutors short revision papers have plenty of such questions.

We are in the same boat. Wish we knew more.

If so, were they not perhaps preparing also for other schools (eg SET) which does not exclude VR type questions?

Perhaps Tiffin papers would be quite similar to SET.

They , now, provided the link ....

http://www.tiffinschool.co.uk/_docs/Doc ... ceTest.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have just looked at the link and it does not say at all that these are samples of what the questions will be like. It just says they are examples of how to answer the questions.


It says: "To help familiarise your son with the way to mark answers on the multiple choice answer sheet, examples of how to answer both the Maths and English questions are below."

There is nothing there to tell you what the questions themselves will be like.

Absolutely. But by giving those examples under the heading of "English", they are re-defining "English" as potentially including VR, because those types of questions appeared in previous Tiffin VR papers. That would be fine if they hadn't made a point of saying there wouldn't be any elements of VR in the new test.

We shall see.

In mondays Tiffins test, can we expect a comprehension passage as well...