11 Plus Exams Forum

I am considering entering my son for a scholarship exam. The school prospectus states that there will be short tests in English, Maths and an Intelligence Test.

Does the Intelligence Test equate to a test in verbal and non-verbal reasoning? Past question papers are not available.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I would have thought that more likely than not its a reference to verbal and or non-verbal reasoning.

It's odd that the school does not consider the English and maths also as intelligence tests.

Sorry to barge into this forum but I just wanted to say that maths and English are not intelligence tests because what marks you gain in these purely goes to show what previous education you have received. So, the more able you are generally and the better the primary/prep school you attended, the better you are likely to be able to perform in these tests.

VR and non VR are different. Although practice does make for higher marks some considerable research has been done by the Foundation for Educational Research in this country, which says that the mark obtainable by an individual child can only be enhanced by so much by practice (can't remember what the figures were). Basically, if a child's natural highest ability threshold for an intelligence test is at 80%, then you are extremely unlikely to get that child to produce a result above that level.

The thing with the 11+ and independent entrance exams, of course, is that a considerable number, and I suggest the vast majority) of pupils being prepared are actually reasonably bright so their natural thresholds are high.

Going back to the English and maths, if you have a child in a good preparatory school, where there are, purely for example, 15 in a class, and that child has a reasonable natural ability with maths, then this ability, coupled with the advantage of more of the teacher's time, is likely to result in more maths knowledge than a child in a state school class of 30 with a similar ability.

It is the case, that children from preparatory schools often perform better in entrance exams than their state school peers and this is probably due to the extra assistance/learning of maths and English. As far as the VR and NVR are concerned, these children may still perform better on average. I would suggest that this is because they may be inherantly brighter (their parents hold down jobs which have salaries to pay those school fees and thus had a good education/ability themselves in most cases).

It is my opinion and experience that the main advantage of private primaries is in English (ability to speak, write, read, etc, etc). In this particular area, I believe privately educated 11 year olds have a huge advantage over their state school peers.

I would have used the private system for that very reason, if I had had the money.

Good luck with the exam/s

You make a huge sweeping statement there about private preps and English which I think would be difficult to substantiate. There are children with good levels of English in both private and state sectors, it depends on so many factors, such as language used at home, private reading habits, etc.

I would say, never ever equate a snooty voice with a higher ability in English.

I agree with "guest" above. There's only so much money can buy, a natural ability to grasp things such as language is not one of them. There are many children in prep schools who have to receive additional support outside school to keep up with pupils from both independent and state schools.

To Gloria:
Intelligent tests, cognitive ability tests or aptitude tests... are essentially tests in verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Bond and NFER tend to be the formats used.

Thanks Guest,

I understand from posts elsewhere on this forum that there are different 'types' of VR/NVR questions. As their are no past question papers available, do you think Bond and NFER will give sufficient range?

G

It depends where you are sitting the exam and which school. My daughter used Bond, Learning Together and NFER tests and she got a scholarship at one school and a full fee paying place at the other school. We didn't really know what to expect and we just did a bit of practice before hand. She is bright anyway, but it helped her to think about technique and thinking skills.

Good luck.

Bond and NFER are the most popular, and challenging I believe. Use a range if you think it's necessary.