NFER/BOND

love2sign · Post by **love2sign** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 11:07 am

I'd be interested to know what other people think about AFN - we haven't tried them.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 1:16 pm

We used AFN to prepare as well as others, finishing up with NFER as they set the actual exams in our area. We found them very useful as they do mirror the types used in NFER. Personally I would say they are slightly easier than NFER but not so much so as to make them not useful - just use them before the NFER ones.

Sara

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 2:02 pm

Our son found the AFN papers relatively easy compared to Bright Sparks.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 2:46 pm

Didn't know Bright Sparks did non-verbal reasoning.

Sara

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:53 pm

as far as i knoe they dont.it would be nice if they did

Sassie'sDad · Post by **Sassie'sDad** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:19 am

I have found bond more challenging for my daughters.

fm · Post by fm » Thu Mar 26, 2009 12:28 pm

With my pupils, after doing Bond Assessment and Learning Together, I do AFN, followed by Bond Test Papers followed by NFER.

AFN are easier but it is a good idea, psychologically speaking, to do these to imbue the children with confidence. I then do Bond Test Papers but I don't have them sit a whole paper. I split them up into the various types and do a blitz on each. The Bond Papers are in the same format but generally slightly harder than the NFER, apart from the dreaded Paper A. The NFER papers should then, in theory, seem a bit of a dawdle after the Bond ones.

dadofkent · Post by **dadofkent** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:36 pm

fm wrote:With my pupils, after doing Bond Assessment and Learning Together, I do AFN, followed by Bond Test Papers followed by NFER.

AFN are easier but it is a good idea, psychologically speaking, to do these to imbue the children with confidence. I then do Bond Test Papers but I don't have them sit a whole paper. I split them up into the various types and do a blitz on each. The Bond Papers are in the same format but generally slightly harder than the NFER, apart from the dreaded Paper A. The NFER papers should then, in theory, seem a bit of a dawdle after the Bond ones.

Do you recommend the Learning Together books. Like many I am struggling for good quality "exam realistic" papers. Have worked through the Bond assessment books. Good for non-timed practice, but becoming a bit tedious now. Do have the Bond and NFER papers, but want to save those for later. By the way are the more recent Bond papers, in the more colourful packaging, the same as the older papers from 3 years or so back, or are they totally revised papers. Have also purchased AFN papers and Athey papers. The former look reasonbly good, but have not used them yet, other than for picking the codes questions out of one paper. The latter bear no resemblance to NFER format papers, and include different question types, but I like them, and found them useful for dipping into for 10/15 mins practice.

Have also purchased MW Educational NVR downloads and Eleven Plus Exams (sorry edit. not Tutors) NVR downloads from this site. The MW papers were, in my opinion, the biggest waste of money ever. I only bothered opening 2 of the 5 papers, and will not bother using them. They are, in my view, boring and uninteresting, poorly produced, do not resemble 11+ formats, and many of the questions would not test an 8 year old. Yet they inexplicably have a 5* rating on this site, while posts on this site recommending other commercial NVR resources are censored and deleted, apparently because they have not been reviewed or assessed.
The Eleven Plus Exams (edit) papers look to be reasonably good material, although, in my view, some of the printing and graphics is a bit shaky, and which, on the one paper I have so far done with DC, did cause some confusion and hesitancy. But many times better value than the MW papers, in my view.