Went to sit the mock exam at Sutton Grammar on Sunday

[anya]

I wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea at first especially because NVR (which isn’t necessary for Wallington Girls) was included. I kept it quite low key and told my daughter to treat it as a practice test. Now I’m glad as she came out smiling and said that she managed to finish all three test papers on time. Big surprise as that’s something that she struggles with at home as she has never finished a paper on time. Has anyone else had experience of this?
Anya

[SunlampVexesEel]

Has anyone else had experience of this?

DD did this (in 2007) and I think it was a great idea.

The people running the test were friendly and it was interesting to see the results at the end. One thing I would say is that the mock was much much easier than the real thing but it will give you an idea of where your child is relative to their peers and is brilliant experience for the real test.

Regards
SVE

[mad?]

ditto everything SVE said. My DD would have had a real panic if she had not had this as a practise/familiarisation run.

[anya]

I definitely think the test is easier because my dd has struggled so much with finishing papers on time. However I think the experience of sitting the papers in exam conditions is invaluable. She has told me that for the first 5 minutes she was shivering because she was so nervous but after that she was fine. I think after this when it comes to the real thing she will just go in and complete her exam without worrying. It seems to have taken the fear out of the entrance test and I would highly recommend it.

[Drastic Dad]

My son will go next Saturday. We haven't told him that this is a 'mock'-test. We are worried about his Maths apart from that he is OK. Never scores less than 80% in either VR or NVR and occasionally goes as high as 93% (Susan Daughtrey's Bright Sparks Series, IPS and Bond 10 minute tests). We haven't moved on to NFER Nelson 11+ exam papers yet but I think he averages around 85% in above papers. Is it good enough? Should we tell him that the Sutton exam next Saturday is not the real thing. He is laid-back as usual and so am I (oh the joys of starting your preparation early!)

[surreymum]

I think you need to tell him it is not the real thing as he is bound to realise while he is there-why would there be girls there? and he needs to trust you and your judgement. The format of the exam is also completely different from the real Sutton test which is maths, english and VR, whereas mock test is VR, NVR and maths.

I'm not sure I agree that the mock test is easier as one of my boys failed the maths in the mock test and passed the real thing

[melinda]

Ditto Surreymum, my son did not pass the mock maths and succeeded in the real thing. Mind you, I think he, realising it was a practice, did not try so hard.
There seem to be a lot of mock tests this year. I guess the real test will be busy on the day.

[JaysDarlin]

My ds went for a mock test today and said he left 7 questions out for the NVR.

Im quite worried because the mock test had 60 questions in 50 minutes and the real thing will have 80.

Worried.