11+ exam. Those of you who's children have passed it.

[Mrspepperpot9]

Hi, just a couple of questions for those who's children have been through the 11+ exam and passed. Or any teaches etc.
Is it much different from the work they do in year 6?

My daughter has always worked above her age range. However, for many reasons we have not long started studying for the 11+ exam (just papers at home).
Do you know of anyone who has passed without months or years or revision beforehand?
As I say she is very capable and the practice tests we have done so far she has gotten 99% on each one.

Anyway, my main question is it much harder that year 6/SATS?
I'm starting to worry now (I have obvs hidden this from DD).

Thank you in advance.

DS didn't have a tutor and I wouldn't say he did loads of revision. We had some practice books that he did a little bit from each week. Then in the last few weeks leading up to the exam, he did a practice paper each week. We probably started work on it about 6 months before the exam but only about 20 mins a week until the last few weeks then it was about 90 mins a week.

I'd say the standard is higher than SATs. Not so much that they need to know loads more, it's more the way the questions are asked as it can be harder to work out what's required. The text used for the comprehension tends to be harder, with more complex vocabulary imo. Certainly the children I know who sat/passed the 11+ seemed to find the SATs far more straightforward.

DS also hadn't covered all the material for the maths paper. I remember having to teach him mode/median/mean for example when he couldn't do those questions on past papers. But I guess that depends where they've got to with the curriculum at primary by the end of Y5 and also which 11+ paper they take as I believe that varies from area to area.

It depends so much on where in the country you are. A grammar county with 25% of children going to grammars is a very different proposition from a mainly non-grammar area with maybe one or two superselectives available.

When’s the exam? If she’s getting 99% then surely she will find them easy?

*whose

We live in an LEA where ther are no grammar schools, but very close to a border with an LEA which has one highly competitive grammar school. Our (seemingly very bright) DD therefore sat the 11+ for this school on the off-chance she would get a place. She had no tuition whatsoever, just did 4 practice tests at home from a pack we got at WH Smith. We were astonished to find she had the 5th highest scrore from around 1,500 entries! So, to answer your question, months/years of revision/practice are not necessary to pass 11+, and while content from Year 6 SATS might be helpful, the skills required are quite different, and imo relate more to an ability to adapt learnt knowledge to problem-solving sitiations.

My son decided to sit the 11 plus the day before. I’d entered him, but he then didn’t want to do it.
So the day before we looked through each of the papers to familiarise him with them, mostly non verbal, and he passed with ease

Yep, my son took 11+, no tuition just looked at few past papers. No problem.

Depends on area and how competitive.
Much of the maths element is not covered in Y6 state primaries though by time they sit 11 plus (September Y6). My DS was stronger on other papers than maths.
We did practice papers to familiarise with questions and he had tutor from spring term of Y5, just for the maths, and passed.

I think what people often dont realise about the 11Plus is it depends COMPLETELY on where you live.
In one area you could get 90% of the questions right and not pass, in another area you get 50% and pass.

This is because it's a competition between the people in your area. If there's 200 spaces and 400 going for them, then no, a bright child doesn't need to tutor. If there's 4000000000 going for those same spots then yes they will. (Exaggeration to make the point)

• In our area, it’s not a pass/fail. The 120 pupils with the highest scores get in. Therefore, the pass mark is different every year.
• No, the curriculum is not taught in (state) schools (non-verbal reasoning). The English and Maths are at higher levels than state schools. It’s actually meant to be impossibly difficult. The reason is that it gives the genius kids the opportunity to show just how much of a genius they are. Example: my DC got 100% on their maths SATs. They are NOT a genius, just a bright child. A genius would have also gotten 100% on their maths SATs. The 11+ would identify how much brighter a true maths genius is than my DC, because that child would have been able to answer questions that my DC could not.

DS had no tutoring, he just did past papers. He had one of the highest scores in his year. Having said that I marked them for him and helped him out with things he had got wrong (sometimes we had to look up how to do it together.)

I would say that it did go beyond what he was taught at school on the maths side but he is excellent at maths and could mostly work out what to do anyway, where he couldn’t we looked up how do something and he mostly remembered. I also helped him with English creative writing section ( for example he thought when it said “write about a holiday” or whatever it had to be absolutely true and I showed him it didn’t have to be, the examiner doesn’t know where you have been on holiday!) We talked about using adjectives that described all the senses, for example.