CEM Familiarisation Booklets
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christmasbonus
- Posts: 118
- Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 4:45 pm
Re: CEM Familiarisation Booklets
As we were doing the Bexley exam, DD did the familiarisation paper mentioned here, but I forgot completely about the timings. I would suggest not worrying about trying to allocate amount of time per question, as the questions the DD will find easier/more difficult will vary. DD did the CEM the first time it was used by Bexley, which was probably a good thing. She did a couple of mocks, which tried to foresee how the exam would look, but didn't split the types into timed sections. I think any practise of this type is useful, though.
Re: CEM Familiarisation Booklets
Apologies the timings are the most important part.The more time you are given the more questions the average child will get right.To succeed your child must be able to work under speed.Like all IQ questions the answer must be correct within the specified time.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Re: Shuffling Sentences
My DD is taking 11 plus this September 2016. In CEM verbal, bit struggling in shuffling sentences, can anyone advice for this please?
Re: CEM Familiarisation Booklets
Make up your own worksheets. Start with short, simple sentences and, as your child grows more confident, increase the challenge. For example, use different types of sentence openers, throw in subordinate clauses, mess around with tenses, vary the subject matter or use rhetorical questions. Do make sure that the superfluous word really doesn't fit in.
You could use this web page to do the scrambling: http://www.johnsesl.com/scrambler/sent_ ... sent.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
nyr
You could use this web page to do the scrambling: http://www.johnsesl.com/scrambler/sent_ ... sent.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
nyr
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gingerly67
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2015 8:45 pm
Re: CEM Familiarisation Booklets
These are some notes I put in another thread - a kind of checklist I gave to my DS - but I'm pasting them here in case they're useful:
My DS also found shuffled sentences (where you have to identify the word that doesn't fit) very tricky at first. However, it's possibly the question type he improved most on through practice. Strategies we found useful were:
1. Scan the words quickly to see if you can work out the general subject of the sentence/what it's about.
2. Look out for any 'rogue' vocabulary items, i.e. words that don't seem to fit in the context, such as 'supermarket' in a sentence about nature.
3. Look for the verb and then try to find its subject (who is doing the action). This could well be a person but could also be a pronoun (he/she/it...).
4. Identify any pairs of words that could go together, e.g. 'sunny' and 'morning', 'walking' and 'slowly'.
5. Look out for any 'rogue' grammar items, e.g. 'that' where the only noun is plural (e.g. 'shoes') or 'an' where there isn't a noun beginning with a vowel.
6. Be careful with words with more than one meaning. We came across a sentence with the word 'crisp'. It also included the word 'packet' but this one turned out to be the superfluous word since the rest of the sentence was about a cold winter's morning!
7. If you're still stuck, look out for words like 'if' or 'when' which could start the sentence.
8. Sometimes these sentences seem to be testing more 'advanced' grammar, e.g. the passive – 'The musicians were applauded by the audience' – so look out for constructions like this.
DS began by trying to write the correct sentence out each time, but soon realised it would be quicker to put numbers over the words to indicate the possible order.
My DS also found shuffled sentences (where you have to identify the word that doesn't fit) very tricky at first. However, it's possibly the question type he improved most on through practice. Strategies we found useful were:
1. Scan the words quickly to see if you can work out the general subject of the sentence/what it's about.
2. Look out for any 'rogue' vocabulary items, i.e. words that don't seem to fit in the context, such as 'supermarket' in a sentence about nature.
3. Look for the verb and then try to find its subject (who is doing the action). This could well be a person but could also be a pronoun (he/she/it...).
4. Identify any pairs of words that could go together, e.g. 'sunny' and 'morning', 'walking' and 'slowly'.
5. Look out for any 'rogue' grammar items, e.g. 'that' where the only noun is plural (e.g. 'shoes') or 'an' where there isn't a noun beginning with a vowel.
6. Be careful with words with more than one meaning. We came across a sentence with the word 'crisp'. It also included the word 'packet' but this one turned out to be the superfluous word since the rest of the sentence was about a cold winter's morning!
7. If you're still stuck, look out for words like 'if' or 'when' which could start the sentence.
8. Sometimes these sentences seem to be testing more 'advanced' grammar, e.g. the passive – 'The musicians were applauded by the audience' – so look out for constructions like this.
DS began by trying to write the correct sentence out each time, but soon realised it would be quicker to put numbers over the words to indicate the possible order.
Re: CEM Familiarisation Booklets
Thank you gingerly67, very useful information.gingerly67 wrote:These are some notes I put in another thread - a kind of checklist I gave to my DS - but I'm pasting them here in case they're useful:
My DS also found shuffled sentences (where you have to identify the word that doesn't fit) very tricky at first. However, it's possibly the question type he improved most on through practice. Strategies we found useful were:
1. Scan the words quickly to see if you can work out the general subject of the sentence/what it's about.
2. Look out for any 'rogue' vocabulary items, i.e. words that don't seem to fit in the context, such as 'supermarket' in a sentence about nature.
3. Look for the verb and then try to find its subject (who is doing the action). This could well be a person but could also be a pronoun (he/she/it...).
4. Identify any pairs of words that could go together, e.g. 'sunny' and 'morning', 'walking' and 'slowly'.
5. Look out for any 'rogue' grammar items, e.g. 'that' where the only noun is plural (e.g. 'shoes') or 'an' where there isn't a noun beginning with a vowel.
6. Be careful with words with more than one meaning. We came across a sentence with the word 'crisp'. It also included the word 'packet' but this one turned out to be the superfluous word since the rest of the sentence was about a cold winter's morning!
7. If you're still stuck, look out for words like 'if' or 'when' which could start the sentence.
8. Sometimes these sentences seem to be testing more 'advanced' grammar, e.g. the passive – 'The musicians were applauded by the audience' – so look out for constructions like this.
DS began by trying to write the correct sentence out each time, but soon realised it would be quicker to put numbers over the words to indicate the possible order.
Would you know if the type I've seen in Bond, where you have to complete a word with three letters, is used in the tests without any clues? In Bond CEM I've seen a pair of words which need to both be completed to get the point. The words have been tricky for a young child. In occasions he's got one of them, but not earned the point as you would need both. Words like "hospice", for example.
Using Bond CEM on-line, I have also seen this question type in a paragraph, but again, unless you get them all, you don't get the point.
I tell my son not to stress about the points and what matters is that he's learning and practising. However, I guess if Bond puts these question types like this there must be used in some regions?
