New to birmingham

[Nevine]

I live in Northern Ireland
My husband got a new job in Birmingham and the family intend to move by September 2016
My daughter is eligible to sit her 11+ in September 2015
But I am very puzzled about preparation, materials and the whole process of getting her into grammar school in Birmingham
The system in Northern Ireland is completely different and she is being prepared in school for the transfer test for Northern Ireland grammar schools
Any advice what materials and preparation can be done in this short time?

[yoyo123]

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/school ... ll-11-plus" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Try here to start.

[muminbrum]

On the plus side you have a daughter and the non-GS op options for girls are much better than for boys.

[um]

The Birmingham consortium exam is on 12th September.
You will need to apply to sit the test in the next month so ensure that you don't miss the application deadline which is Friday 10th July.
Applications should be open next week.

If you are moving towards North/West Birmingham you may also wish to apply for the Walsall grammars.
Their application is now open and the deadline in 5 June - their exam is on 1 July. Apply here: http://www.qmhs.org.uk/images/stories/S ... 6_2017.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In general expect the CEM exam(s) here to be of a higher level than the 11 Plus in Ireland - and look out for CEM specific materials for practice.

The test in short will look at non-verbal reasoning, mathematics (particularly problem solving), multi-choice comprehension, vocabulary and cloze (missing words/letters).

[Nevine]

Thank you for your reply
Can anyone please guide me to the best types of books can be used to cover all areas of the exam. I have bought many different types but I feel I am lost
What I understand is that the test in Birmingham and Walsall will include numerical reasoning, 3d non verbal,comprehension, and the cloze. Is there anything els?

[sbarnes]

from my own personal experience, I used as a wide variety of books for 11+ as I could lay my hands on. Waterston's stocks the best range of material for 11+; variety covers all levels of difficulties and choice. The Bond series is OK and should be completed quite early on; don't rely on Bond for CEM. CEM is supposed to be tutor proof and is there to weed out strong and weak candidates. There are many on this forum that also advocate lots of reading. Personally my DS hates reading and still did relatively well. Its not the be all and end all in my opinion. Good luck.

[clearsky]

If you have already done some work for 11 plus in Northern Ireland and your daughters basic skills in maths and English is ok then I would just start working through test papers and yes wide variety is best. We found cgp cem range books and Fptp, really good to practice question types, also to practice timing, because cem exam timing is crazy, the cgp mock papers was excellent to practice the timing.

[muminbrum]

Preparing your daughter for it to be hard too and that she might not have time to answer all the questions. Exam skills like moving on if you get stuck on a question etc . I think if they keep calm that's half the battle.

[um]

from my own personal experience, I used as a wide variety of books for 11+ as I could lay my hands on. Waterston's stocks the best range of material for 11+; variety covers all levels of difficulties and choice. The Bond series is OK and should be completed quite early on; don't rely on Bond for CEM. CEM is supposed to be tutor proof and is there to weed out strong and weak candidates. There are many on this forum that also advocate lots of reading. Personally my DS hates reading and still did relatively well. Its not the be all and end all in my opinion. Good luck.

I disagree. How many years has it been since your ds took the exam?
Until a few years ago, CEM type materials were not even available commercially and, now that they are, it's fair to say the level required has correspondingly jumped up too.

Firstly, grabbing hold of a load of books and completing them all may be working hard, but it isn't working smart. Some children might stand this kind of 'volume work', but not many. Better to, as the poster states, focus on what they need to focus on!
Plus, testing alone isn't really going to help your child. It's like measuring my height every day - it's not going to make me grow taller. Better to genuinely expand their vocabulary and understanding of texts than simply sit taking tests.

Looking for books in the CEM format is a good start. There are many good ones available via this website for both cloze and comprehension and vocabulary. Memorising and practising vocabulary - websites such as freerice.com are great for this - is something you can do now. Make a note of any vocab that your child did not know when completing papers and help them to memorise it.

I'd personally say that reading a good book will do more for children's literacy skills than pretty much anything else on earth, including wading through paper after paper. Reading is a vital part of preparing for the literacy syllabus, and, more importantly, for secondary English and life itself
If your child is not great at reading fiction (and I have to say that my own ds2 still doesn't read much fiction at all, to my frustration ) then let them at least read non fiction, and/or magazines such as How it works and National Geographic.

[sbarnes]

Either a child has got it or not to pass CEM, additional tutoring helps with time mgt