2012 Entry Papers

[First-timer]

I've just had a look at these. The English was really hard. I'm not even sure I agree with some of the answers given! The Maths was more horrible than usual too. Lots of questions seemed to be couched in such a way as to trip up the candidates. Even the straightforward computational questions at the beginning were made trickier by having missing digits. One of the questions is supposed to be on co-ordinates but there is no origin or axes - it's designed to be confusing. The questions seem to be more time consuming than in previous years. Overall, I would say it seems to have been a more difficult exam than last year. Well done to everyone's DC who got through it!

[ahap]

My DS said the same thing, that it was harder than last years English and Maths papers, however he said the Maths was okay, even though it was hard because, he likes to be challenged but its the answers that need to be correct for the ones he found tricky isn't it?

[rhubarbcrumble]

You are a braver soul than me First-timer...

If I looked at the papers, I would pretty much know which ones my girl would have got right and wrong. Can't take the pressure haha...

[ahap]

I'll be purchasing it for my DD after March. If I buy it now, I might ask DS to do it all over again.

[First-timer]

Ahh, not brave. DD doesn't sit the exam until September!

When DS sat his 11+ I got the papers in the February and guessed what sort of mark he had achieved. I reckoned he had a reasonable chance but wasn't a shoo-in. My estimate turned out to be surprisingly accurate. It didn't help to read the papers but I just couldn't stop myself! I'll do the same when DD sits the exam. It's just to satisfy my own curiosity - I wouldn't expect the DC to go through the papers again!


Just read your post, ahap.

[anxiousanna]

I have to say that I was not intending to purchase the 2012 papers as I thought I would be able to sit back and accept 'what will be will be.' However, the closer we get to D-day, the more I want to know. what to do, what to do.....

[sahara]

Oh, Anna, the suspense is killing me, it is literally 3 weeks now, I want to see the papers but I think it will bring me back to the state I was in at the end of November. I had gone through every emotion and possible outcome, plus dissected DD's info, post exam to an inch of my life,
After that it was slightly easier, checking on here every day and having up and down moments , but it never left my thoughts.
Now, with the papers available I think I am battier than November, I actually feel that I could do with meeting the battiest ones on here, just to go on and on about it with like minded people, I really just want to drone on about it to someone who 'really' understands.
Christ knows how I will be in the last week, let alone if I have to tell DD it's a fail, I think she has a heart on not just being there, but being head girl!

[madnan]

Well, my pack arrived yesterday - and practically had me out the door shopping for uniform for the local comp!!

I had a long discussion with my daughter and gave her the option of whether we ordered them or not and she was clear that she wanted me to. She won't be 'sitting' the papers again, we just intend to go through it together as we did all the practice papers. Her reasoning was that since she's convinced she did so dreadfully in the Maths it might make her feel better to discover that she may have got a few right! She's pretty well adjusted to the idea that it's all done now whatever and if she confirms that it was as bad as she thought on the day then she can put it out of her head without waiting for 1st March - if not, well, we're no worse off than we were before ..... can't change what's done either way - and we both really wanted to see them!

The maths paper, as observed by others, is indeed a shocker. My husband is a maths teacher and I was watching his raised eyebrows as he read through it! His view, also previously mentioned by somebody else I believe, is that the content is not necessarily more challenging but is presented in a way that may require a different approach and many of the questions could have been quite time consuming. Possibly, he felt, a response to over tutoring to 'pass' familiar papers, requiring the candidates to have a better understanding of concepts and their application. Sadly, maths is our DD's weaker subject so this wasn't great news for her!

The English paper, I felt, could have been a bit deceptive. Because it's a modern language piece it feels like it should be quite straightforward but, also previously mentioned I think, I found some of the questions a bit ambiguous and not at all obvious. At least one of them I disagreed with or felt it was at least a 50/50 choice. The spellings were a mixed bag - some obvious, others less so and the hard ones were pretty hard! My DD said on the day that the English was ok and not as hard as the practice papers - I don't know whether I should feel that she was actually pretty well prepared or that she didn't notice the pitfalls!

Let's just hope that the VR was, in fact, the easiest of the papers as she felt it was!!

[rhubarbcrumble]

Sorry First-timer...I forgot...

I really am such a big wuss aren't I? I really can't bring myself to get them and even look at them secretly without my girl knowing! If I had the courage, it probably wouldn't help much really anyway because she might have done really well on the VR, but of course we can't get those papers.

Hoping soooooooooo much that she scored highly on the VR and didn't muck too many up and got at least 50% each on the others (although I'm rather thinking she totally flunked the maths paper - ye of little faith eh?!)...might just get her through....aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh. H.e.l.p.

[Clarabelle]

Well, what can I say. After reading the posts about this years papers any shred of positivity I was clinging onto has now disappeared At this point I don't think I will be ordering the papers as I think dd will go into complete meltdown if we try to look at them again. She hasn't wanted to talk about the exam at all. Oh well, roll on 1st March....