Reading Boys exam pattern

Eleven Plus (11+) in Berkshire (Berks)

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mb123
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2014 10:08 pm

Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by mb123 »

Hi,

Please can someone (who attended Reading Grammar school exam in 2014) shed some light on the questions asked.
What type of questions were asked? What is the difficulty level of the questions. Any feedback would be very helpful.
berks_mum
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 4:52 pm

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by berks_mum »

Knowing last year's questions or exam pattern may not help much as CEM is likely to change every year. I would focus on preparation instead.

Below is some information that I posted on other threads but useful as Reading, Kendrick and Slough use the same test(same day).

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 70&t=41204" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Test:
Berks exam has VR,NVR and Maths. VR = some elements of traditional VR(synonyms, antonyms) + English (comprehension + cloze). Most likely, VR is 50% of total marks, MAths 30% and NVR 20%.

Preparation:
For VR, add cloze, comprehension(multiple choice), synonyms and antonyms to your preparation.
For NVR, go through some 3D NVR(cubes,nets,series) in addition to your existing preparation. Although 3D NVR may not appear in some tests.
For Maths, thorough preparation up to level 5 and good amount of level 6 topics as well.
You may use a single publication to introduce topics but use papers from a variety of publications for the DC to get used to types of questions, accuracy, speed and stamina.

Mocks:
Try and do as many mocks as you can, including Sutton mocks (both). They really prepare the child for the exam experience and show the weaker areas very well.

Finally, my observation with berks was Maths levels were quite high or we were behind schedule. A strong English probably helped my DD to pull through.

Disclaimer: CEM exams are unpredictable and likely to change every year. Above Information is based on my experience and it may be subjective.

And this -
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 70&t=41154
Although it is hard to compare 11+ with national levels, for super selective schools like HBS, Tiffins, Kendrick as a rule of thumb prepare your DD up to level 6 Maths/English.

Publications:
Papers don't have to be CEM specific. If you look in the Shop section of this website you will find a variety of publications. Try and cover as many publications as you can moving from the easier ones to harder ones as you go along. According to last year's experience most of the DCs found CGP and Bond CEM papers quite hard so don't be surprised if your DC drops score on those ones. Bond(other than CEM), Athey, Walsh, Learning together, Alpha series, Bright sparks are easier than CGP. Doing them before the harder ones may help your DC to build stamina and speed thus developing readiness for the harder papers.

Speed:
In my experience DCs pick up speed as their learning phase tapers and as they do more and more papers. May be after the first 5-10 papers you may notice a sudden rise in speed. You may not want to panic your DC by timing from paper no. 1. You can however discreetly time your DC and see which direction it is going with the next few papers.

Any other questions post here and folks here will help you as best as they can. Good Luck to your DC
berks_mum
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 4:52 pm

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by berks_mum »

I hope the post above helps you. Any other question post it here.

You may also follow the Kendric 2015 thread as the test is same.
Last edited by programmer on Mon Feb 23, 2015 1:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: fixed link
StMaurMum
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:02 am

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by StMaurMum »

Thanks for this information. Where did you find out that for Reading School Verbal Reasoning makes up 50% of the final score.
Optimist
Posts: 424
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:37 am

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by Optimist »

berks_mum wrote:I hope the post above helps you. Any other question post it here.

You may also follow the Kendric 2015 thread as the test is same - http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... =10&t=40907
Tried opening this url. It said I did not gave permission to access this forum. Can the mods look into this, please.
Tinkers
Posts: 7240
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:05 pm
Location: Reading

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by Tinkers »

i can't open it either. I'll report it to the programmer.
hermanmunster
Posts: 12815
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by hermanmunster »

there is an error - a 7 got missed off the end !

try this :

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 10&t=40907" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
berks_mum
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 4:52 pm

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by berks_mum »

StMaurMum wrote:Thanks for this information. Where did you find out that for Reading School Verbal Reasoning makes up 50% of the final score.
I can't remember the exact source. Also, this structure may change this year as CEM does not publish anything. You may want to contact the school to find out the break up for this year or ask at the open day.
indiemom
Posts: 359
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 1:18 pm

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by indiemom »

When in this forum we found out the scores for Berkshire then it was simple maths to find out that so called Verbal Activity (it's very different from the ancient verbal reasoning pattern that is GL based) is majority of the weightage.

But after analyzing the scores we also found that lot of students who did very well in one subject might not have the done same other subjects so kids with high maths always didn't do well in VA therefore the rank was affected. And around one point there might be 20-30 students. Please remind the DC of this , though they are too young to understand this :D. But honestly it's scary to see how many students can be within one point when it's close to the cut off line.

Another thing we found both in Bucks and Berks that there were no 3D NVR questions last year. It was first CEM for Berks but second year for Bucks though.

But at other posters pointed out CEM is very unpredictable and they change patterns so it's good to prepare overall rather than concentrating on particular areas. But yes one thing for sure NVR is never more than 33.3% and Verbal Activity is usually very dominant in every county where CEM is used.

Berks never mentioned their % weightage for each section last year don't know whether they are going to do that this year or not. But it's known for Bucks.
Last edited by indiemom on Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sonasona
Posts: 869
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:51 am

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by sonasona »

Great post indiemom!
indiemom wrote:Berks never mentioned their % weightage for each section last year don't know whether they are going to do that this year or not.
Its a bit unfair not to release this info, but then that might be because they plan to change it year to year because that what the schools in Berks have asked for?

For Sep 2015 candidates, I would suggest you ask for this information at the open days/evenings.
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