My son thought maths was really hard and the 6th former helping in his room said that three of the maths questions were A level standard in his opinion. He said he left quite a few 'bits' out of the questions. Was my son exaggerating? He is now convinced he has failed despite all the work he has done.
Anyone else?

My ds also said the maths was difficult. From the questions he remembers it seems more like KS3 so it's very misleading for the schools to state the tests are based on KS2. I also question how children are meant to reach the standard without a tutor as they will not have covered the KS2 curriculum at the beginning of year 6.

Yes highly relieved , getting to the end of the grammar school test !!!! Wow, I can now breathe

lemongrass- well we all know that the kids going to normal primary schools( NOT prep) don't cover most of the 11 plus syllabus till year 6 and that's why lots of parents choose the tutoring route
my DS was just taught advanced fractions for example beginning of year5 by tutor as I was shocked at the amount of things he did not know as he hadn't been taught in school infact reason why I took on the private tutor for some time to help teach the basic Maths syllabus (after he finished as everything was getting too expensive I then took this task on by myself)
not sure if theres anything that can be done about that this is how it has always been in past years
so we all have to make decisions as parents whether you want to wait for the schools to teach them or carry on with your child
anyway don't know if anyone feels the same , its like lifting something of my shoulder now. Yes!!!Yes!!!Yes!!! and am afraid its waiting time now- its not over till its over!!!!!

Edited to remove quoted message from above.

Am I glad the tests are finally over? Definitely yes. In addition to commending each and every child that has taken on this journey, it would not be an exaggeration to say that for parents like myself, it has brought about a deeper understanding of the system( plus and minus). I hope that the ideology behind schools testing beyond KS2 levels( if it is consistent and true), would be to stretch and challenge the child rather than see whether a child has conceptually strong KS2 skills rather than expect them to cover KS3. Where does that leave parents who are not able to tutor or who decide to go the DIY route.

I have been thinking about the level that all the children have been expected to get to, to reasonably achieve in these tests and the more that I think about it, the more I wonder exactly who checks and oversees the level of the contents of the test. It does not really work if the people who set the tests are actually the same people who are monitoring themselves. We have been told again and again by the schools that no tutoring is needed and that the level expected is no more that KS2. My son has practised using all the KS2 level 6 papers and he has only got a couple of questions wrong in the last 6 weeks so I know that he most certainly does understand all the year 6 work but he still found the test today very, very hard. I would like to know who sets the tests. Is it set by the schools in-house together or is it a professional test setting company ? I really do not believe that even a bright, bordering on genius child would be able to pass these tests without some sort of tutoring, after all there is no school that I have heard of that supports children who want to do the SET to this level in year 5. I think it might be time to ask for some proof that what they tell us at open days and on their websites does actually match the tests that they conduct.

From what ive seen so far it is virtually impossible for a child that goes to a "ordinary school" ( NOT prep school I mean)to pass the exam without some sort of tutoring no matter how clever.
I know a parent from my dd's school that did not prep her dd because she said she had no clue that it was necessary to do this . infact her dd did not even attempt any Mock tests and her dd said she was so sick during the grammar exams due to pressure when she saw the questions and of course did not pass
her dd is top in school(teachers tell her) but fortunately for her she passed very well the Indie school exams and with bursary n scholarship paying barely nothing in school fees and shes still topping in the Indie shes at now

so with this experience she had to do it differently for her ds ( did a lot at home and also sent him to very cheap group tutoring( am talking £10 per hour as she cant afford more ) who just finished 11plus last year and in year 7 now and passed all the Sutton exams but they decided to go for an Indie where hes also barely paying nothing due to academic scholarship and bursary combined.....

infact what ive seen most people do is that if you have a bright child , they start tutoring lessons in year 5 other than that MOST kids start in year4 or some even start earlier(not sure how that's possible) but there we go!!!

that's the story some have to tell about this 11plus journey......

A student cannot judge the level of a maths question- there's no way it would be A level

Many of the question are just set in unfamiliar contexts.

No way that a child who has just finished year 5, could come in top 15 - 20% of the candidates without practice and familiarisation with these selective exams. There wasn't English & Maths exam at the time of my DS sitting for Tiffin exams, but my DD sat for these exams in 2015 and she hasn't yet come across harder comprehension and writing. Maths was as well harder than they did by the end of year 6.

correct Guest 55.

its certainly not possible that the examination board will set anything outside of the syllabus and talking about A level standard questions being in an 11plus paper - certainly No way
I agree questions might have been hard but as said above they they might have been set in "unfamiliar context"

my son found maths was harder then expected but he
Could deal with it .good luck to all the boys