Entrance Exam 8 Plus

[lottysmum]

My daughter is sitting entrance exams this week for an independent school (she's 8 and it is for entrance into Year 5)...I've been totally laid back and haven't done any preparation at all apart from showing her an 11 plus paper a few months ago and she sailed through the first part of it which is probably why I am so laid back..... 12/14 girls will be offered places at the school and it is not the end of the world if she does not get offered a place because the state school she could move to is very good and we probably preferred it to the Independent..... She;s very bright but i am now wondering whether I should show her some Verbal and Non Verbal Reasoning papers to familiarise her with the format....

I'm keen for her to have the opportunity of being offered a place but it must be on merit only ...however I'm feeling I maybe disadvantaging her by not showing her any papers......although she didn;t need any prompting with the 11 plus paper....

Should I find some Verbal/Non Verbal Reasoning papers before her entrance exam?

Personally I would for one reason

there is nothing worse than sitting in an exam thinking 'OMG what do they want me to do.'

From experience this has always been the downfall for bright children who fail exams.

This then crushes them as they haven't failed before, there was no need for them to fail, so for the sake of a wet Sunday afternoon I would go and do a couple.

Definitely get the papers and do some practice. Others will be doing it. Don't believe all this guff about getting in on merit. Good luck with the exams.

Buy the Bond 10 minute tests for Non-verbal reasining for 8-9 year olds and possibly 9-10 year olds (but the 9-10 ones may be too high a level). Do the same for the Bond 10 minute verbal reasoning tests for 8-9 year olds.

I;ve sat her down tonight with The Secondary Selection Portfolio Verbal Reasoning Test (meant to be 50 mins but we just spent 15 mins tonight) found it on Google....she's done Ok with it....there were a couple of words like "derelict" and "entice" where I needed to explain the meaning but once I had done that she was OK....fine with opposite words...finding missing letters within a word that make a new word and good with Alphabet Patterns...but I don;t know what level this paper is so will get the Bond Tests tomorrow..... I suppose better late than never.....

The assessment at school is a computer based test...so I am not sure how it works...will they be given some paper to write notes.... i.e. when looking at patterns with numbers etc....

Also not sure what to tell her with regards to spending time on questions.... she's methodcial ...so she would sit and spend time working out a question rather than move onto the next......and then come back to the one's she needed time on ...but will the computer work like this ....

On Saturday they do a reading and writing test which she will be fine with ... she's level 4a on reading and writing...so that does not concern me....

11plus.co.uk has free papers for verbal and non-verbal. You just register with an email address. But these are really for the 11 plus which is most probably too high a level. Those 10 minute Bond books are great and are aimed at the appropriate age level.

Not sure about the computer test, but they usually allow you to go back and answer questions. I think it is best to move on if she gets stuck rather than waste time. For the 11 plus you get something like 30 seconds per nonverbal question and they all have equal value. Therefore, best to attempt as many as you can, rather than spend minutes on one question.

Thanks for your help ...I haven't had time to go into town to get the Bond papers but I tried her on the tests on the 11 plus forum and she seems fine on both verbal and non verbal reasoning..she knows the format now ... so cross fingers she should be OK.

Apparently they are given allot of time to answer the questions and the idea is to go has far as they can....

Good luck!