Common Entrance; Eleven plus

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arniew
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 6:55 pm

Common Entrance; Eleven plus

Post by arniew »

Please help with thie 'problem'.
Can anyone explain to me how to prepare a child for the eleven plus or other similar tests to enter Independent schools, if he/she attends a'normal' state primary school?

From arniew
ADW
Ed's mum
Posts: 3310
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:47 am
Location: Warwickshire.

Post by Ed's mum »

We did exactly that last year. Ed was at a state primary and sat the 11+ and two entrance exams. He was successful in all of them, but I am unsure how much help I shall be for several reasons...
Firstly, the 11+ in our region (Warks) until this year was just VR.
Secondly, our son is so intrinsically lazy that we really did virtually no prep at all!
Having said that, you cannot go wrong with looking at the National Curriculum expectations for year 6 AND 7 in literacy and numeracy and trying to cover/revise those areas. Also plenty of reading - not just alone but with and to you or someone else.
I think you need to get sample papers or an idea of what the entrance exams will entail. For one school it was english paper, maths paper and a comprehension - fairly traditional. For the school we now send him to it was an innovative computerised test which covered various subjects and had progressively more difficult questions. There was far less emphasis on writing and the emphasis was more on ability/potential from what I understand - thinking/reasoning skills.
What you could do - if you find that the entrance exams are fairly traditional - is visit lots of different independent school websites and download their sample papers. I did this, although he didn't actually DO any of them(!)
I hope this is even a tiny bit helpful...
Bougalou
Posts: 435
Joined: Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:23 am

Post by Bougalou »

Hello there. it will depend upon the local authority and the independent schools involved. Our DD took the 11+ for the state grammar school which consisted of VR and NVR only. These were multiple choice NFER tests and we were given a few examples of typical questions. However, in our area, you really need to employ a tutor for children taking the test as most of the others are, hence a very high pass mark.
She then took an entrance test for an independent school which consisted of a standard VR test and one in English (comprehension plus short writing task) and Maths (mapped to NC- full paper sent in preparation.)
So my advice would be to contact the independent school direct and they should be able to give you more details. The process wasn't arduous at all for us, and I hope the same will be true for you
Bouga
T.i.p.s.y

Post by T.i.p.s.y »

ISEB have Common Entrance papers for 11+ entry, however they are usually for children who have gone through the prep system - maybe worth a look though.

Agree with Bougalou, as in phone schools and ask what is expected. Have you got any you are interested in yet and I could find out how selective they are?
LuluQueen
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:41 pm
Location: Surrey

Post by LuluQueen »

I would suggest a spot of home tutoring. Buy some VR and NVR books and test papers and go through them with your child. If they don't understand it, go through it with them and prompt them a little. Ask them how they would work logically through it and find the answer. Do this every week and they should get better at it.

:)


LQ
SunlampVexesEel
Posts: 1245
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 9:31 pm

Re: Common Entrance; Eleven plus

Post by SunlampVexesEel »

arniew wrote:Please help with thie 'problem'.
Can anyone explain to me how to prepare a child for the eleven plus or other similar tests to enter Independent schools, if he/she attends a'normal' state primary school?

From arniew
We did this and the only issue we had was that our 'normal' school had not unsurprisingly not covered the entire Yr6 syllabus at the time of the tests (approx 1/2 way through Yr6).

So... you need to cover the extra bits yourself... particularly, from what i remember.. Maths... improper fractions and operations there-on.

Regards
SVE
Animis opibusque parati
JASMINE
Posts: 61
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:56 pm

Post by JASMINE »

Totally agree with SVE, it was the same for us. Had to cover some sections of maths ourselves.
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