Nets and Cubes

[shabbymummy]

My son only did the Bexley test. I wish, in a way, I'd cross-questioned him as it'd be useful for his brother in 2017 (if things haven't changed by then ...) But, of course, we were just glad it was all over and were happy never to discuss it again! (And I put all the books away in the loft).

And the cloze tests! Yep, that was his other blind spot. And they didn't come up.

NOT looking forward to blinkin' nets with my other son when we come to preparing him. I couldn't do them either. And I don't remember ever having done them myself at school. Maybe I just blotted it out! I found most of the NVR stuff quite hard myself too - in the end my son was explaining it to me. But that's quite a good way of learning as it made him verbalise what he was thinking. And he was quite happy to get one over on his Mum.

[salsa]

My son only did the Bexley test. I wish, in a way, I'd cross-questioned him as it'd be useful for his brother in 2017 (if things haven't changed by then ...) But, of course, we were just glad it was all over and were happy never to discuss it again! (And I put all the books away in the loft).

And the cloze tests! Yep, that was his other blind spot. And they didn't come up.

NOT looking forward to blinkin' nets with my other son when we come to preparing him. I couldn't do them either. And I don't remember ever having done them myself at school. Maybe I just blotted it out! I found most of the NVR stuff quite hard myself too - in the end my son was explaining it to me. But that's quite a good way of learning as it made him verbalise what he was thinking. And he was quite happy to get one over on his Mum.

I totally understand! We were also glad it was all over. However I did ask him about cloze as we'd only known about it with one week to go. He said it came up. This was 2013.
As they want to make the test unpredictable they are bound to change things round. That's why this test just makes it harder to tutor, but we still prepare.

I empathise with the Spatial and NVR comments. My children are much better than me and they patiently explained it to me! I just hinder them. Fortunately, they take after my husband in this respect, so he can work with them. Phew!

[dwisdom]

Also from what I remember from last year CGP NVR comes in two versions : a cem version and a non cem version. Cem version doesn't have code or 3D shapes while the non cem version which is harder does.....
Which is why it won't come up in the Bexley exam

[Kinfolk]

Hi there, I've been tutoring for the Bexley exam since they changed format a couple of years ago. None of my pupils have ever recalled cubes being in the exam. dwisdom is right in saying that they're not typically included in the CEM exams.

Newstead girls have also said definitively that cubes aren't in that test (they're not included in the Newstead sample papers either).

The only local grammar school exam that seems to feature cubes and 3-D shapes is the Kent exam.

In terms of resources, the best thing you can do is create your own nets based on the Bond/CGP questions and allow your child to play around with those.

[salsa]

Thank you Dwisdom.

Does anyone know if the cloze type where there is a word bank has come up?
At the moment the long passages with lots of words are proving difficult to manage time wise.
My son did FPTF Book 1 Cloze and some passages had 28 words in the word bank. Sometimes a word would easily fit elsewhere thus causing further delay.

Thank you.

Salsa

[dwisdom]

Last year cloze was a word bank while sample paper were just sentences

[salsa]

Thank you Dwisdom, I hope he doesn't get those huge ones as they are so time consuming.
Salsa

[salsa]

Hi there, I've been tutoring for the Bexley exam since they changed format a couple of years ago. None of my pupils have ever recalled cubes being in the exam. dwisdom is right in saying that they're not typically included in the CEM exams.

Newstead girls have also said definitively that cubes aren't in that test (they're not included in the Newstead sample papers either).

The only local grammar school exam that seems to feature cubes and 3-D shapes is the Kent exam.

In terms of resources, the best thing you can do is create your own nets based on the Bond/CGP questions and allow your child to play around with those.

Many thanks Kinfolk. So, he'll still have to do them as he's also doing Kent.

[grgygirl]

Thanks for the info. I think with CEM we have to expect anything! There just seems to be so much to cover and practise and all within a tight timeframe. Nets and cubes are my nemesis!