St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??
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St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??
Hi - my ds is going to be sitting the St Ambrose exam on 19th September this year - and I am hearing so many conflicting views about the format of the Catholic Grammar Schools' exams - it is now getting to be very confusing!! I don't want to practise elements of the exams with my ds if he is definitely not going to be tested on them! We have been given the following information:
VR - 45 mins
Maths - 35 mins
English - 30 mins
No one has mentioned a Creative Writing task until yesterday... so where does it fit in? Is it in addition to the English paper? I can't see how they could do an English paper and CW within 30 mins? Also - does anyone know whether these exams are the standard GL Assessment papers - or exams written by the school as I've heard? I know some of you have a ds who sat this paper a few years ago, but current info tells me that it all got a little bit more difficult in 2014...so if anyone can tell me what the English paper consisted of last year - I would be very grateful!
VR - 45 mins
Maths - 35 mins
English - 30 mins
No one has mentioned a Creative Writing task until yesterday... so where does it fit in? Is it in addition to the English paper? I can't see how they could do an English paper and CW within 30 mins? Also - does anyone know whether these exams are the standard GL Assessment papers - or exams written by the school as I've heard? I know some of you have a ds who sat this paper a few years ago, but current info tells me that it all got a little bit more difficult in 2014...so if anyone can tell me what the English paper consisted of last year - I would be very grateful!
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Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??
Hi Olliesmum, My DS sat last year, there wasn't any creative writing as far as I can remember, the format is Moray House, I dont think they do practice papers, the English seemed to be vocab which wasnt terribly difficult until the last page or so, it was multiple choice. VR reasoning was similar to GL. Maths my DS said was easier than GL. Hope this helps a bit, I can only go off what my DS relayed back to me. Good Luck
Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??
Thanks Wilmslowmum!
This is really useful actually. How did you find out that it was Moray House? Also - for the English paper, by 'vocab' - would this be Cloze exercises? Thanks for confirming though that there wasn't any Creative writing!
This is really useful actually. How did you find out that it was Moray House? Also - for the English paper, by 'vocab' - would this be Cloze exercises? Thanks for confirming though that there wasn't any Creative writing!
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Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??
My son also sat it last year and there was no creative writing. I have heard its the same papers every year?
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Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??
Somebody mentioned to me it was moray house last year, there were definately no practice papers as i looked online!! I am not familiar with cloze , my DS said they had a sentence and had to choose the most suitable word, whether that was to fit in the sentence or describe it , i dont know. He said they started really easy then got more difficult , some at the end were very challenging and probably pot luck if you knew them.
Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??
Thanks. So there is a Cloze/gap fill exercise as we have been told. I am just wondering now if the Moray House papers are similar to the KS2 SATs papers? It is only a 35 minute maths paper - so it can't be the GL Assessment paper?
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Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??
Yes, my DSs sat it in 2014 and thought it was the easier that Altrincham or Urmston. Definitely no creative writing and if you've done prep with GL papers you'll be fine as that will cover vocab etc.
Re: St Ambrose Exam format for THIS year??
Thanks for this! It's useful to know all of this...we are in the final days of preparation now aren't we? If the GL English paper covers Vocab...is that just the cloze tests, or will it also be questions on spelling and punctuation etc?