Is year 3 too early to predict grammar success or failure?

[dani*]

I'm not sure if this is true up to degree level, but I'm confident that an average child can be taught to pass the 11+

Is this not the game played by a lot of Indies? Some even use it as a selling point.

[Thingsbehindthesun]

Everything can be taught! Some people work stuff out intuitively but others need to be shown it first and then apply it.

I've always held that view as well! If taught well then it is possible.

[menagerie]

I just think some grammars are disingenuous when they make out that their exams test native intelligence. NVR does nothing of the sort. It weeds out the tutored from the untutored (home or professional, but still, tutored. Maybe what they are really doing is sifting for families who will support the children to get the grades that keep their school up there in the league tables...

I'm not saying everyone can be taught to achieve the same level, but concepts can be taught in half an hour to someone who would spend a lifetime not working them out unaided.

[dani*]

NVR does nothing of the sort. It weeds out the tutored from the untutored

We are in a GS area where NVR is not tested and DD had to work hard to pass the 11+. Maths teaching in her primary is not very good but we have kept up on maths at home even before we started working towards the 11+

We did however sit the Kent test which includes NVR. DD was home tutored, the DIY way and although we spent very little time on NVR compared to Maths and VR. DD dropped only 1 mark in the NVR Kent test. The sad reality is that had we not done the work we did she would not have passed, regardless of her NVR score.