11 Plus Mocks

Discussion of the 11 Plus

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

11 Plus Mocks - Practise the real exam experience - Book Now
MARC1
Posts: 90
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:20 pm

11 Plus Mocks

Post by MARC1 »

Hi this is just a message for in the future when parents are doing mocks with their children. My DS did some of the online mocks in the month of June prior to the September sitting of his 11 plus exams (ie 3 months later). He always scored pretty low (c50-60%) and it left me disheartened as we were close to the actual exam. We had to do them online due to most sites saying they weren't doing in person due to Covid. Now im not sure if doing them online was part of the problem but the marks were not what I expected as he was doing c75% and upwards on the practice 11 plus papers by the time it was July before the exam. His first practice papers were done a year before the actual exams and he was getting about 60%. Well, in the actual exams he scored 230 in Bexley and 390 in Kent which we were all very happy with. So I post this to say that no matter what happens in the mocks just keep going and it is still possible that a decent pass can be obtained.
Sorrel
Posts: 616
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:56 am

Re: 11 Plus Mocks

Post by Sorrel »

Well done to him, that's great. Yes mocks can give pretty odd results I think, though if in person and you don't worry unduly about the result, can be useful to get exam conditions experience.
bridge
Posts: 262
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:38 am

Re: 11 Plus Mocks

Post by bridge »

Our daughter did the Sutton PTA exams in 2017 and didn't score hugely well - 60 - 70%s if IRC. She ended up getting her first choice of school. We booked to do the Sutton mocks for our son last year - but due to covid he had to do them online. As he was doing it online I asked him to screen grab every question so that I could go over them and see where he was going wrong. Sadly, there were plenty of questions outside the scope of KS2 & some were written badly etc. In essence for online exams you are not getting anything more than just sitting papers at home. The benefit my daughter got was seeing children queueing for an exam, sitting at a desk etc.

Online is not worth it.
New 11+ mum
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2021 8:53 pm

Re: 11 Plus Mocks

Post by New 11+ mum »

Our son did loads of practise papers at home and only one mock. The reason I wanted him to go for the mock was to feel what it's like to be in a strange environment with kids and adults that he doesn't know. I asked him at the time if he felt nervous but he said he didn't, I told him I wanted him to feel a bit nervous :D He scored around the same at the mock as he was at home. In hindsight, the mock didn't really prepare him for the real thing as there were only 12 children at the mock and 230 in the hall altogether at the real thing. I personally think plenty of practise papers at home in a controlled, timed environment is as good.

I also think that some of the companies that organise mocks set them much harder than is needed. This makes parents panic and think their children need to be tutored. We have to remember that these companies are running a business and some may be more ruthless than others. The mock that my son sat was a CGP paper and the tutor that organised the mock has a good reputation. I personally would stick to CGP, Bond, Letts, Leap and Scholastic papers. These are the ones we used anyway and my son scored well in the Shropshire, Walsall and Wolverhampton Consortium CEM test (pass mark 301, he scored 373).
MARC1
Posts: 90
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:20 pm

Re: 11 Plus Mocks

Post by MARC1 »

Whilst the online results were disheartening, its probably still best to do a couple of online mocks, assuming in person mocks are still not available, just to give your child a semi real exam experience before the real thing (also i probably wouldn't have felt comfortable not doing any mocks even if the online ones were the only option). My DS final results were more in line with the marks he was getting doing the at home practice papers in the final weeks leading up to the actual exam. His results were improving as we went along. I was a bit worried as the results were improving but they were improving on papers he had done before. We both hated CEM paper style (i didnt tell him i did until after he finished the exams. But i did hate them also. He much preferred the GL paper style, as did i). The key thing I learnt really was that practice paper repetition was the key to him doing well. Whoever started this whole forum needs a knighthood as there were times when i hated putting my DS through it but the forum helped realise you aren't alone. Luckily he was ok with the whole process. The only C-19 virus positive factor to come out of our situation is that for the year we were online learning with school, he could literally get his school work for the day done in like half hour. Which was comical to me at the time but meant we could focus on practice papers after his 'school days work' If you can call it work lol.
CuriousCat
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2022 11:09 pm

Re: 11 Plus Mocks

Post by CuriousCat »

Hello everyone, I am very much new to this forum as well as the 11plus journey. My DD is going to appear for the exams this year. Apart from humongous amount of queries I have, one particularly needs most attention. Whats the right time to start the mocks? Some advise to start as early as possible to understand child's weak areas to beef up prep while others say not until summer as bad results might demotivate her. Please advise :-)
MARC1
Posts: 90
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:20 pm

Re: 11 Plus Mocks

Post by MARC1 »

We started practice papers at the beginning of year 6. An online mock was done the February, June and July before the exam in September. Practice papers were done pretty continuously in the summer before the exam for us. Everyone will do it differently. From our experience the practice papers better prepared our son before the exams than the online mocks did. We did have the 'benefit' that as school was online for a lot of the year due to covid, this school work was pretty minimal so it allowed us to do more practice papers during the school day. The minimal or should i say less challenging online school work helped us alot to focus on papers.
Choppy
Posts: 130
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:15 am

Re: 11 Plus Mocks

Post by Choppy »

We did three mocks: late Feb, May and August. For our child, that was by far the most useful bit of prep we did.
CuriousCat
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2022 11:09 pm

Re: 11 Plus Mocks

Post by CuriousCat »

Thanks Choppy and Marc1 for your responses. Its quite useful to know the frequency of the mocks and the ideal start time. My DD did a couple organised by her Coaching and she didnt really do great, all because of the timed section bit. Hence I was worried that she might need more of these to bring her up to speed. But dont want her to be disheartened either.
Any suggestions on the practice papers- CGP, Bond or any other proven to be more efective?
MARC1
Posts: 90
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:20 pm

Re: 11 Plus Mocks

Post by MARC1 »

Hi Curiouscat, we did Bond, CGP GL, GL assessment and CGP CEM. We literally managed to do them twice. It was alot of papers but as stated we were able to do it because the online school work was minimal. We probably wouldnt have done as many if it was not due to covid. At the time his second take of the papers were alot higher than the first take. Which was good but also made me panic that maybe he only did better as he had seen them before. The second take of the papers was started in August ie a month before the real thing. With the first take being spread from October to July before the exams as he was also doing CGP/Bond books at the time with his tutor. I think id said he didnt like the CEM style of question but Bexley was like that for us. HE much preferred the GL assessment style which was how Kent was. As a guide during first take he averaged Maths 74%, English 60%, VR 73%, NVR 63%. By the second take it was Maths 92%, English 75%, VR 95%, NVR 89%. These were averages for GL assessment. His averages for CEM were alot lower and were ALL (and I mean ALL) failure scores to be honest (c50% and below). But he managed to get through both styles of paper in the final exam. For our son the online mocks weren't that great, however its still worth doing. It would be better to have it in a hall to give the real exam feel but that wasn't an option. I don't think in my opinion id do more than 3 mocks and for us time was most definitely better spent doing the practice papers.
Post Reply
11 Plus Mocks - Practise the real exam experience - Book Now