Reading Boys exam pattern

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Mum71
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2015 4:15 pm

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by Mum71 »

I don't claim to be an expert although suddenly some people think I am after my son got into Reading School. Before starting on my son's preparations like many I listened to the advice and practice of many before us. Everyone had their own story which I think confused rather than help me. The common thing I picked up was that a lot of dedication and preparation is required both on the part of the child and parents. Our own preparation involved speaking to our son's school teachers to identify his weaknesses in maths and English and finding a tutor to first help him pull his levels up. I found one who managed to get their own children to Reading Boys so that was a bonus. Someone here mentioned getting the child to level 6 maths and English. Our tutor also said the same, and suggested some level 7 maths topics should be covered. Once and only once his school teacher and tutor agreed that his levels were improving significantly did we think of putting him through the 11+ preparation. I also didn't want him to burn out or peak too soon, so it wasn't until the end of February that his training started. He was a bright boy and I agreed with the tutor that if he understands the principles and methods of approaching and solving the VR and NVR type questions, he doesn't need excessive coaching. Then the focus was getting him familiarised with the methods and problem solving. It was a process of gradual build up rather than bombarding the child with information overload. Remember he also had school work, activities that I felt he should continue to allow his mind rest time etc. This continued until end of May when we started to work on practice papers and sample papers. From June to end of August that's all he did, picking up the tempo during the summer holidays. From the scores he was getting I noticed by mid August he wasn't improving his scores any more so he had reached his peak which was good because the exam was just 2 weeks away. We didn't do any mock exams because despite the views of many I didn't think any tution centre could replicate the real life test experience, and I had enough material and could make my own observations on what he was strong and weak at. When he wasn't improving on his scores he would say "dad can I try again" and was motivated to do better, but he wasn't. That's when you know he is peaking. What we did do was to enlist him into another school that was going to have similar CEM test. This served as a practice run in real environment, and also we selected a school such that if he did actually do well in that then it would allow us another option. He did extremely well in that exam and gave him a lot of confidence going into the Reading Boys exam. His test results reflected the score he was achieving at home with his practice papers.

Like I said, everyone has their own views, approaches and stories. The summary is that you should assess his/her ability. If they don't have it then they don't have it. Not everyone is born the same even if as parents we would like them to achieve higher. Don't be pushy and subject him to something that may have a negative effect later on. Expensive over coaching isn't required if he has the ability. Time the preparation so that they don't burn out and don't peak too soon. Otherwise boredom and frustration (and may be complacency) will set in.
Optimist
Posts: 424
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:37 am

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by Optimist »

Now that the sep 2014 exam is out the way, can any parents feedback on type of questions asked in the english and maths part of the CEM exams
mb123
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2014 10:08 pm

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by mb123 »

Hi,

Please can some one tell me if there were any partial word cloze type questions in last year Reading boys exam.
sonasona
Posts: 869
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:51 am

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by sonasona »

mb123 wrote:Hi,

Please can some one tell me if there were any partial word cloze type questions in last year Reading boys exam.
No, they are not really suited to multiple choice answer sheets.
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Reading Boys exam pattern

Post by Daogroupie »

So this means none in Slough, Woodford, Chelmsford, Latymer or any of the schools that are using CEM super saturday.

Is the CEM super Saturday exam ALL multiple choice, no filling in of blanks at all?

In the cloze questions does each word have a letter?

Is each question 4 or 5 choices?

Thanks DG
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