St Anslems VR format
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HopefulDen
- Posts: 149
- Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:02 pm
- Location: Birkenhead
St Anslems VR format
Hi to all
I'm getting a bit twitchy now the nights are drawing in. I've just realised I don't know if the St Anslems VR test is standard or multiple choice-does anyone know please?
Anyone there?.......Tumbleweed............
I'm getting a bit twitchy now the nights are drawing in. I've just realised I don't know if the St Anslems VR test is standard or multiple choice-does anyone know please?
Anyone there?.......Tumbleweed............
Denise J
Re: St Anslems VR format
I think its multi choice, but not 100% sure- thought i'd at least answer so that you would know that your not the only person out there....... 
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HopefulDen
- Posts: 149
- Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:02 pm
- Location: Birkenhead
Re: St Anslems VR format
No problem. I must admit the Wirral site seems very quiet, and I too feel a bit alone. Although I have registered my son for the St Anselms exams I am still not sure if I'm going to let him sit them. My concern is that the exams are the day before the 11plus and Wirral Grammar is his preference. Although VR is fine, English is not his strong point- typical boy with weak spellings and a tendancy to write as little as possible. He is good at maths (acheived 5b this year) but some of the maths questions are very challenging, and cover stuff they haven't done in school yet. I am therefore worried that as he is a sensitive perfectionist, it may knock his confidence for the 11 plus!! How are you coping? I'm highly stressed as I have boy/ girl twins and still don't know how I'm going to deal with it all, or more importantly how they will deal with it, if one passes the 11plus and one doesn't! I'll be glad once its all over.
Hope your prep is going well- must admit we haven't really looked at the St Anselm stuff much, and have done no real practice for their papers.
Good Luck
Hope your prep is going well- must admit we haven't really looked at the St Anselm stuff much, and have done no real practice for their papers.
Good Luck
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HopefulDen
- Posts: 149
- Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:02 pm
- Location: Birkenhead
Re: St Anslems VR format
Hi again Miggi
Gosh I thought I was under pressure but you are doubly so with your twins. I have a vaguely similar problem in the sense of my eldest son is already at Calday Grange and my younger one has already convinced himself he's going there but...he's a bit borderline on the VR. The problem is the vocab, not memorising the words as such as he's really improved over the summer, but he can't visualise words or create words in his head. This was raised at parents evening when his teacher said he just hasn't got that sort of brain. He was very late talking as a toddler and he had to have speech therapy earlier on as he didn't have clarity when he did talk, so people didn't always undestand him and he got frustrated. This resulted in him being very shy when talking to people and stopped him experimenting with words. He is smashing now though and his school has done a lot to build his confidence but he is easily knocked back. Strangely though, when talking now he uses very adult and sometimes complicated words and it sounds fabulous. He is really bright and very analytical and as such is maths is excellent as is anything else that he can put a reason or logic to including sciences and history.
As a result of all of this he struggles seeing words unless unless he writes them down and he has problems with the insert the three letter word amongst others. He has improved with these but he still gets one or two wrong in these types. My strategy has been to make him as accurate as possible on the others but he doesn't always concentrate and seems to have birdies flying around his head-he often hums when working which I've had to make him stop! I'm hoping to get him over the 85% hump that we are stuck on in the next week.
I'm just making him practice tests now constantly but it's difficult when I'm in work as it has to be the evening and my life insn't my own-I'm dreading the start of term next week. If I had a choice I wouldn't do it but he's insisting he wants to go to Calday so thats that
With regards to St Anslems-I was undecided like you but we went to the open evening last term-It was lovely with a homely atmosphere and my DS said he really liked it. It is very religiously orientated however many boys there aren't catholic and I always feel you can give the balance out of school if you need to. Now I'm torn as my DS isn't as confident as my eldest, Calday is a big school and it is likely noone from his school will be going there apart from him (only 3 boys in his class-the rest are girls). As far I understand there are 3 tests for St A's and you need to pass two-50% maths, 50% english, 85% VR -which raises another problem-if he is borderline VR he needs the test to be Multiple choice to help him with the word questions and....he can't write stories very well as he can't create the words in his head, so we are having to work on that too.
St A's has another open day on 13th Sept-why don't you go as this will help you make up your mind about the test. Sorry to all about the length of this post but you have to get it out there sometimes, and if anyone does know the answer to whether St Anslems VR is multiple choice or not-I'd be grateful
Gosh I thought I was under pressure but you are doubly so with your twins. I have a vaguely similar problem in the sense of my eldest son is already at Calday Grange and my younger one has already convinced himself he's going there but...he's a bit borderline on the VR. The problem is the vocab, not memorising the words as such as he's really improved over the summer, but he can't visualise words or create words in his head. This was raised at parents evening when his teacher said he just hasn't got that sort of brain. He was very late talking as a toddler and he had to have speech therapy earlier on as he didn't have clarity when he did talk, so people didn't always undestand him and he got frustrated. This resulted in him being very shy when talking to people and stopped him experimenting with words. He is smashing now though and his school has done a lot to build his confidence but he is easily knocked back. Strangely though, when talking now he uses very adult and sometimes complicated words and it sounds fabulous. He is really bright and very analytical and as such is maths is excellent as is anything else that he can put a reason or logic to including sciences and history.
As a result of all of this he struggles seeing words unless unless he writes them down and he has problems with the insert the three letter word amongst others. He has improved with these but he still gets one or two wrong in these types. My strategy has been to make him as accurate as possible on the others but he doesn't always concentrate and seems to have birdies flying around his head-he often hums when working which I've had to make him stop! I'm hoping to get him over the 85% hump that we are stuck on in the next week.
I'm just making him practice tests now constantly but it's difficult when I'm in work as it has to be the evening and my life insn't my own-I'm dreading the start of term next week. If I had a choice I wouldn't do it but he's insisting he wants to go to Calday so thats that
With regards to St Anslems-I was undecided like you but we went to the open evening last term-It was lovely with a homely atmosphere and my DS said he really liked it. It is very religiously orientated however many boys there aren't catholic and I always feel you can give the balance out of school if you need to. Now I'm torn as my DS isn't as confident as my eldest, Calday is a big school and it is likely noone from his school will be going there apart from him (only 3 boys in his class-the rest are girls). As far I understand there are 3 tests for St A's and you need to pass two-50% maths, 50% english, 85% VR -which raises another problem-if he is borderline VR he needs the test to be Multiple choice to help him with the word questions and....he can't write stories very well as he can't create the words in his head, so we are having to work on that too.
St A's has another open day on 13th Sept-why don't you go as this will help you make up your mind about the test. Sorry to all about the length of this post but you have to get it out there sometimes, and if anyone does know the answer to whether St Anslems VR is multiple choice or not-I'd be grateful
Denise J
Re: St Anslems VR format
Denise,
Spoke to kids head teacher today whose son sat St Anselms exam last year- it is multiple choice and apparently much easier than the 11plus!!! So I guess thats good news all round
My son also has some similar issues to yours. Because he was doing great in spelling tests, but contantly making silly/ easier/ and lots of mistakes in his work we asked the school to test him for dyslexia. Although not dyslexic they identified that the part of his brain to do with translating phonix into words doesn't work- it's like his ear and eye are not connected. Very frustrating because no matter how much we go over rules and methods for spellings he just can't apply them. He only does well in spelling tests because he learns them by sight. As you are doing, we too are trying to get him as near to 100% accurate on the maths (as he excels at maths) to allow for the inevitable errors with the word ones. Saying all that he too has made good progress and doing well. We're just hoping all the pressure doesn't get to both of them over the next to weeks. In all honesty we have stepped off the peddle a bit and they are only doing 2 papers a week.
It sounds to me like your doing a great job, and considering all the options and trying to prepare for them. I too liked StAnselms but son has heart set on Grammar!! St Anselms would be his back up option probably.
Fingers crossed it all comes together in the end
Spoke to kids head teacher today whose son sat St Anselms exam last year- it is multiple choice and apparently much easier than the 11plus!!! So I guess thats good news all round
My son also has some similar issues to yours. Because he was doing great in spelling tests, but contantly making silly/ easier/ and lots of mistakes in his work we asked the school to test him for dyslexia. Although not dyslexic they identified that the part of his brain to do with translating phonix into words doesn't work- it's like his ear and eye are not connected. Very frustrating because no matter how much we go over rules and methods for spellings he just can't apply them. He only does well in spelling tests because he learns them by sight. As you are doing, we too are trying to get him as near to 100% accurate on the maths (as he excels at maths) to allow for the inevitable errors with the word ones. Saying all that he too has made good progress and doing well. We're just hoping all the pressure doesn't get to both of them over the next to weeks. In all honesty we have stepped off the peddle a bit and they are only doing 2 papers a week.
It sounds to me like your doing a great job, and considering all the options and trying to prepare for them. I too liked StAnselms but son has heart set on Grammar!! St Anselms would be his back up option probably.
Fingers crossed it all comes together in the end
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HopefulDen
- Posts: 149
- Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:02 pm
- Location: Birkenhead
Re: St Anslems VR format
Thanks Miggi-that's a relief. From what you've said your twins have worked had and have been very well prepared so I'm sure they'll do fine come exam day (and there's still time for a few more practices) I wish you and your two the very best of luck with everything!
Denise J
Re: St Anslems VR format
And the same to you Denise- I'll probably see you and your son at St Anselms!!! Heres hoping for some good practice papers and lots of confidence building next week.
Miggi
Miggi