Moray House - what's the best preparation?

Advice on 11 Plus VR papers and problems

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herty
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Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:23 pm

Moray House - what's the best preparation?

Post by herty »

S Herts Consortium uses Moray House VR papers.

As you can't buy these, does anyone know what are the closest, in terms of practice papers and books to practice from?

And how many types of questions eg the 15 or 21 or whatever that people on here refer to?
KenR
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Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

It's not correct that you can't get hold of the papers, Many tutors have a full set of the 5 papers.

Moray used to restrict purchase of the papers from individuals in a particular authority that used the tests, but they didn't restrict access to Educational professionals in other authorities. hence the resaon why some tutors were found toi have copies.

I'm quite franky surprised that Herts are still using these papers - Warwickshire stopped using Moray a few years ago for the very reason that they were relatively freely available.
herty
Posts: 332
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:23 pm

Post by herty »

Well that seems rather unfair. What do you do if you wish to help your child yourself, and do not have access to a tutor with the papers?

What indeed is the point in setting a paper where some (tutored) kids can just learn the answers in advance?
Daogroupie
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Location: Herts

Herts Consortium VR

Post by Daogroupie »

If it was really the case that tutors had these papers then the VR scores for the Herts Consortium would be far higher than they are. My dd sat this paper in November. She said it was much easier than the DAO and HBS VR papers and felt it was closest to Athey and NFER. I would also recommend IPS and Bright Sparks and Walsh but leave last two for towards the end as they are harder.
herty
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Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:23 pm

Post by herty »

Thanks. That's really helpful.
herty
Posts: 332
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:23 pm

Post by herty »

As an intro to the different types, is it best to use Susan Daughtrey or IPS or something else?
patricia
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Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear Herty

The stable of 21 types are used by Bright Sparks , Madeleine Guyon, Walsh, IPS the Tutors.

Athey and Bond are different, although contain some similar to the 21 but also include other types and some are missing.

With regard to Moray House, as Ken has stated the real tests are out there in the community and I am too very surprised to hear they are still being used. The types included will not be the stock 15/21, they may include some, they may use additional types.

The following threads are an interesting read on Moray House.

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... php?t=7919

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... php?t=4762

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... php?t=2285

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... php?t=8145

You can use the search function at the bottom of the page, search moray.

Patricia
Daogroupie
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Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Moray House

Post by Daogroupie »

Patricia,

I knew about the year that DAO and ST M's had the same paper but not any of the Warwickshire stuff. It is shocking. 123 children getting perfect scores, how does that compare with the average? What was the end result of ST M's announcing that they were not going to use the VR' scores that year? Were they forced to in the end? The thread ends on this cliffhanger and there is no more info. What is so bad is that St Albans Girls this year not only used Moray House for VR but they also were in North London consortium Group One where the comprehension passage was taken from an existing Common Entrance paper which many tutors had used as a practise paper. This means that potentially some candidates would have already previously completed two out of the three papers. On Moray House is it really true that there are only eight papers? My dd did three Moray House exams this year so she has almost done 50% of the total! My younger dd will also do three Moray House exams later on this year and in January next year. Will there then be only two they have not done! We have recorded a question from each so we will know if they do the same paper. She is doing the same three schools so we would hope it will not happen. Does Moray keep any record of who has used what? My dd did not do as well on the papers as I thought she would. Was this because she was competing with children who had completed the questions before? I really hope this was not the case.
herty
Posts: 332
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:23 pm

Post by herty »

I agree, it is shocking - incomprehensible - that they would set papers widely available in the public domain for such important exams. I have worked as an exam paper writer myself, in English (not for entrance exams, though) and can assure you it is really not very difficult to rewrite papers or write fresh ones 'in the style of...'.

It is incredibly unfair if bright children are being disadvantaged in this way. And I can see no reason for it - unless the school really aims at social engineering based on knowing the right tutors/going to the right primary school?

There are so many other good papers that could be used.
WP
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Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:26 am
Location: Watford, Herts

Re: Moray House

Post by WP »

Daogroupie wrote:I knew about the year that DAO and ST M's had the same paper
I think those are two separate incidents.

In 2006 DAO and the Herts consortium used the same VR paper, and ended up taking the earlier result from children who had done it twice:

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... php?t=1306

In 2007 St Michael's had to hurriedly set their own English and VR papers for a repeat sitting in January 2008 after a number of girls were heard saying that the paper was the same as they'd just done with their tutor:

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... php?t=4762
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... &start=130

I was expecting the consortium to switch after that and the Warks fiasco, but it seems they still haven't.
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