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Common Entrance; Eleven plus

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:14 pm
by arniew
Please help with thie 'problem'.
Can anyone explain to me how to prepare a child for the eleven plus or other similar tests to enter Independent schools, if he/she attends a'normal' state primary school?

From arniew

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:56 am
by Ed's mum
We did exactly that last year. Ed was at a state primary and sat the 11+ and two entrance exams. He was successful in all of them, but I am unsure how much help I shall be for several reasons...
Firstly, the 11+ in our region (Warks) until this year was just VR.
Secondly, our son is so intrinsically lazy that we really did virtually no prep at all!
Having said that, you cannot go wrong with looking at the National Curriculum expectations for year 6 AND 7 in literacy and numeracy and trying to cover/revise those areas. Also plenty of reading - not just alone but with and to you or someone else.
I think you need to get sample papers or an idea of what the entrance exams will entail. For one school it was english paper, maths paper and a comprehension - fairly traditional. For the school we now send him to it was an innovative computerised test which covered various subjects and had progressively more difficult questions. There was far less emphasis on writing and the emphasis was more on ability/potential from what I understand - thinking/reasoning skills.
What you could do - if you find that the entrance exams are fairly traditional - is visit lots of different independent school websites and download their sample papers. I did this, although he didn't actually DO any of them(!)
I hope this is even a tiny bit helpful...

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 6:32 pm
by Bougalou
Hello there. it will depend upon the local authority and the independent schools involved. Our DD took the 11+ for the state grammar school which consisted of VR and NVR only. These were multiple choice NFER tests and we were given a few examples of typical questions. However, in our area, you really need to employ a tutor for children taking the test as most of the others are, hence a very high pass mark.
She then took an entrance test for an independent school which consisted of a standard VR test and one in English (comprehension plus short writing task) and Maths (mapped to NC- full paper sent in preparation.)
So my advice would be to contact the independent school direct and they should be able to give you more details. The process wasn't arduous at all for us, and I hope the same will be true for you
Bouga

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:00 pm
by T.i.p.s.y
ISEB have Common Entrance papers for 11+ entry, however they are usually for children who have gone through the prep system - maybe worth a look though.

Agree with Bougalou, as in phone schools and ask what is expected. Have you got any you are interested in yet and I could find out how selective they are?

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:27 am
by LuluQueen
I would suggest a spot of home tutoring. Buy some VR and NVR books and test papers and go through them with your child. If they don't understand it, go through it with them and prompt them a little. Ask them how they would work logically through it and find the answer. Do this every week and they should get better at it.

:)


LQ

Re: Common Entrance; Eleven plus

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:42 pm
by SunlampVexesEel
arniew wrote:Please help with thie 'problem'.
Can anyone explain to me how to prepare a child for the eleven plus or other similar tests to enter Independent schools, if he/she attends a'normal' state primary school?

From arniew
We did this and the only issue we had was that our 'normal' school had not unsurprisingly not covered the entire Yr6 syllabus at the time of the tests (approx 1/2 way through Yr6).

So... you need to cover the extra bits yourself... particularly, from what i remember.. Maths... improper fractions and operations there-on.

Regards
SVE

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:02 pm
by JASMINE
Totally agree with SVE, it was the same for us. Had to cover some sections of maths ourselves.