11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi,
My 10yo daughter took her 11+ today and came out feeling really negative. She's had tuition (Kip McGrath for 6 months) and some pass papers at home (although it's been difficult to get her to do them because of other pressures and she's quite headstrong).
I passed by the skin of my teeth 27 years ago but didn't go to grammar (I now have a BA and a good professional job, though), but my dad went to grammar and loads of mine and my daughter's paternal family did too.)
I'm not stupid, I know this doesn't matter and I don't need a lecture on tuition etc. But I'm wondering if anyone has a vague idea about whether kids who feel it went bad usually fail.
I'm really gutted because my daughter's one of the top four cleverest kids in her class. She does and always has done loads of activities but is very emotionally intelligent. She's brilliant at English but is just above average for her age at maths.
I guess I just want some encouraging and inspiring words from people who thought their kids had failed but they hadn't.

Thanks. xx

I think most parents would say it is difficult to gauge, those that find it easy might have misread the questions, those that found it difficult may just be focusing on the questions they struggled with, rather than the paper overall.

You honestly can't tell at all when they come out of the 11 plus (or just about any other exam they ever take for that matter )

Try not to worry as you cannot affect the result. She was probably emotionally and physically exhausted today and may feel more positive tomorrow. However, saying that, kids are fab hands at remembering all the questions they found hard or ones they missed out and very good at forgetting the ones they found easy...!

1. Many kids are totally inaccurate... Either overly pessimistic or overly optimistic.
2. It is not just about her own score but also the score of everyone else. Remember point 1 also applies to the other kids, not just your own.

Therefore, dont read inti anything other than the actual final official results.

Forget about it, though I know it's not easy.

Please try and relax (I know it is hard). My daughter came out of Henrietta Barnet 1st exam last year and said it was very very hard and she missed a few questions too. Soon after that we met a few very confident kids who thought it was a walk in the park.

When the results came, my daughter got through to the second round and the confident ones didn't. Again she said the 2nd exam at HBS was really hard and I was so worried. Lo and behold, she passed and got in to HBS.

Keep your chin up and good luck to your darling child.

like others have said, it is not worth worrying yourself about it till the letters come out in 4 weeks time. I'm sure your DD did her best and no one knows really how she did compared to everyone else apart from the computer that is doing all the marking.

its time to have a little break and recoup (unless you've got CSSE in your diary that is.. )

I don't think you can tell. Dd2 came out in 2012 shrugging and looking negative.

She did fine.

DS2 has just done the 11+, he came out smiling before telling me he did no comprehension and guessed all vr. When I saw him smiling I thought it must have been easy, this was just his way of being pleased to see me because it meant it was all over.

I keep reading about dc who found the test "easy". I hope this just means easier than expected!

As north dad said, it's not just about your dd but everyone else.

As for my ds' friends who said it was "easy", upon further discussion it appears they all struggled in different areas.

Your dd is obviously a bright girl, try not to worry. I'd like to say time will fly until results, but we all know that isn't true.

DS sat in the Trafford CEM test yesterday. He came out said it was ok, not too hard also not too easy ( I wasn't sure what was that mean ). Then he said the questions in the paper was not hard, the difficult part was the time pressure. He managed to finish all the sections, however he had to guessed a few. Maths was the only section that he had about 5 minutes to check his answers at the end. And a few of his classmates who took the test yesterday also thinks the test was easy. So let's just wait and see.

You absolutely cannot tell. DS2 took the CSSE exam last year, came out saying it was hard, he had messed up the timing on the English paper and so missed out 4 of the 5 VR questions and failed to finish the second writing task. We assumed he had not passed and started looking at other options. School friends all declared it easy.
A year on he has just started at CRGS( the only boy from his school ) having comfortably passed.

At this stage all you can do is try not to think about it too much and wait for the score.