11 Plus Exams Forum

Working through CGP and Bond 10-11yr 10mins tests and assessment papers. These appear, in my humble opinion, much harder than the actual exam? Should a child who’s writing the 11+ exam this September be already working through the 10-11yr CGP/Bond material or should they stick to the 9-10yr material? Are the CGP/Bond 10-11yr books anyway near representative of the actual 11+ exams? Just to clarify, our daughter will be writing the CEM/CCHS and CSSE exams. Would really like to learn from other parents and teachers on this, as I’m not quite sure. This is our first experience with the 11+. Thanks All for your help.

There are no past papers for CEM but you can gauge the difficulty of the CSSE past papers here https://csse.org.uk/index.php?option=co ... &order=ASC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks Mitasol. Yes, I’m aware CEM has no past papers and I’ve seen the past CSSE exam papers. My question to those parents and teachers who have 11+ experience: How do the CGP / Bond CEM and GL books for 10-11yr olds compare to the real 11+ exams? For example, does a child need to be hitting north of 70% to 80% to have a realistic chance of passing the exam? Or should the child be focussed on using the 9-10yr material? I think I once read somewhere that the 9-10yr material is much closer to the actual exam, but I’m not 100% sure.

my DDs did CEM Bucks/Berks. the Slough cEM was definitely 10-11 material, it tested to the end of year 6 and was very time-pressured.

Bucks has now changed to GL and specifically only covers to end of year 5 BUT given they are all very closelipped about actual exam content, you’re better off going to 10-11 and getting them used to speed and as much accuracy as possible. the difference between the 10-11 and the 9-10 stuff is also the number and complexity of questions, not syllabus as such.

DD1 passed both exams (and was quick and accurate). DD2 failed both but is severely dyslexic and it was obvious her speed - reading and spelling was what combined to bring her score down (even with extra time). Both of them used the 10-11 material and their results were not an enormous surprise (we DIY’d) as I could see the speed issue as the date approached, we just gave it a try.

It’s better to get the best with the 10-11 stuff and if you’re lucky the papers may feel easier. you risk a nasty surprise if you stick with the 9-10 and the pace is too much in the real thing.

ps the CGP books “felt” similar level and style to DD1 to the actual papers.

My DS passed the Bucks CEM with just some DIY prep over the summer, we used the CGP 10-11 tests and he was getting about 90% within the time for verbal and maths - this was reflected in his actual test scores. He only ever got 50-60% in the non verbal reasoning and this was also reflected in the real test, where he scored 50% in NVR. So the CGP tests were very accurate!

Thanks All. Very much appreciate your feedback.