Online mock test with Sutton Grammar School PTA, sutton, surrey

Hi @Thisonesfortheroad I sent you a PM

@BumbledBee wondering how your DD found the mock this time round?

PPs said that the Maths was difficult last time, so I expected my DC to find the maths challenging, however my DC found all three parts challenging/ time pressured.

As we don’t have anything to compare it to, just wondering if it “felt” of a similar in level to your DC or harder/ easier. Highlights some gaps for us. Now to work out how to address them!

Can anyone help pls, I'm a little late with all this but my son will be sitting the SET on September 14th.
How and where do I find the online mock test information? Any guidance would be highly appreciated.

Anyone know if you have to sit the mocks in one sitting?

Just wondering whether the school uses the mocks to inform their exam papers? For example, if they seemed more time pressured and challenging this time and you say that the school themselves acknowledged that this seemed to be the case, would they use this info to inform/ pitch the actual exams at a more appropriate level?

The maths paper was the only paper DD has ever not finished with time to spare - she usually whizzes through and she only got to question 40. Her standardised score was still high because the results were low overall, but it knocked her confidence. It did, however, deliver some lessons she needed about moving on from a question instead of being stubborn.

There were a lot of very wordy questions where the relevant information needed to be extracted before the calculations could begin. More than usual. From my experience so far, the SET will feel time-pressured, but not as much as that mock maths paper was.

The English paper was as expected in terms of difficulty and time, and the results showed that.

My dd found the maths harder than she was expecting and she didn’t finish. It’s been very helpful learning from that point of view. From the helpful write up it seems that lots of kids found the maths hard. Conversely she found the English very easy - but that is her stronger suit so that makes sense.

[quote Thisonesfortheroad]@Mumalsoasfriend what made the maths test so dreadful? The way it was conducted or the content?[/quote]
I think two factors made it - difficulty level and expected speed to complete all the questions. Some other parents shared me a similar view as their DCs didn't finish the maths Qs too.

@Mumalsoasfriend what made the maths test so dreadful? The way it was conducted or the content?

@Lockdowndramaqueen thank you for your answer! it's very helpful

just wonder if anyone has got an inspiring results from the mock of 30 May, esp the dreadful maths test?

We only booked the Sutton Grammar PTA one so don’t know about others. They have another date coming up later in the summer. I was told it’s useful to see a standardised score against the cohort and also for your child to practice in test conditions. Obviously this year it’s different/ online.

Do you think mock exams are worth it while preparing for the 11+ exams? What were the best mock exams you did? I want to book several in for my son so he can get a lot of practice before.

Thanks @Mumalsoasfriend that was a useful prompt. Interesting to see the result.

Does anyone know what books online resources are useful for practicing problem solving maths - think we need to speed up looking at our result. Thanks.

The mock test R result has been released.

@Thisonesfortheroad honestly yes, I would recommend it. He may even surprise you. If he does really badly, there’s still time to improve/manage expectations. Also, he will get less of a shock on the day. In my view, the test is scarily hard. Also, loads to do in a short time (my son didn’t finish the maths...).

@Thisonesfortheroad , any exam practice is good practice so I would go for it.

Hi @Jumpalicious I’ve checked and it looks there is only one mock date left! It’s quite late too (August)... would you still advise sitting this. Part of me thinks that late stage might be better not to know where DS sits within the cohort!!

Do girls and boys do the same test? I realise that this might seem like a really silly question to ask, but...

DS took the Sutton grammar school tests last year and passed all three. I would definitely recommend Sutton Grammar School PTA familiarisation tests. Because of covid restrictions he was only able to do the online version, but it still really helped - mainly to make him (and us) realise how important it is to time the answers correctly. He had never done an exam like that before and it was extremely time pressured. It also helps you realise where you stand in relation to other candidates, no room for complacency!!

PPs have mentioned the elevenplus exam papers: I would really recommend those too. If you search for the school you’re aiming at (eg Wilsons, WCGS, etc), they will direct you to the type of exam format that is most similar to the relevant grammar school test. It was helpful for stage 1 of the Sutton grammar school exams as well as for stage 2 (for Wilsons and SGS).

None of the above options are actually endorsed by the schools themselves, but they’re pretty reliable sources of questions and the right format. We wasted time on other grammar school formats which test non-verbal reasoning, for example, only realising at the last minute that this was no use for the Sutton grammar exams (but of course, depending on which schools you’re applying for, could be helpful for admission to other schools).

By “Sutton test” I mean the mocks being discussed above!

Ds did tiffin test and Sutton last year. Got into tiffin.

Did not buy any past papers specific to the school since none exists. Schools change test formats all the time, too.

Sutton test - cogitated over whether to bother coz the beauty of the test (used to be) that the child experienced an exam hall - ie before the actual test.

However, really glad he sat it. You get a good idea of where your child sits, in our case among a cohort of over 2000+ other children who registered for the test, and you can see how difficult the test really is! So I say go for it!

• Sutton & Tiffin