Non-verbal reasoning tests

[yoyo]

Does anyone know where I can find examples for a friend's step-son?
Thanks.

Hi yoyo

All the main publishers of 11+ tests do them -- Bond, Athey, NFER. Big bookshops stock them in the section with the kids' workbooks.

(Can you tell what we've been doing over the past few weeks...?) [grimace emoticon]

Frogs - thanks, I will pass that info on to her. How has DD found them? What sorts of things do you have to do?
(I suspected you would be the person with the answer to my post!)

On another matter, do you know of any current poetry competitions ? DD has written a fantastic poem - DH was convinced she'd copied it from something but I saw her work on it from scratch! She took it to show her teacher who just said "I haven't the time"! She could have feigned interest and say she'd look at it later.

Okay, grabbed a bond workbook off the kitchen shelf:

1. Underline word closest in meaning to one in brackets: (centre) core, half, edge, square, border. (and others in the same vein, including synonym, antonyms etc)

2. Find the four letter word which can be added to the letters in capitals to make a new word: The cup won't break it is made of PIC. (Answer: LAST, giving PLASTIC). Various permutations of these, including adding words, taking away words, swopping letters from one word to another to make a new word.

3. Find a word that can be put in front of each of the following words to make new, compound words: step, ball, print, path. (Answer = foot).

4. Also number questions, bizarrely. I think these count because the questions are expressed verbally, unlike NVR which are just diagrams. So eg. a bunch of birthdates, working out who is x amount older than who, how old y will be on z date etc.

5. Coding questions, where you encode/decode words into numbers, symbols or other letters.

I recommend the Bond series, as they have a series of graded workbooks, and also a 'how to do VR' guide. If you go straight to eg. Athey 11+ VR questions with no prior experience, child will probably lose the will to live quite quickly.

at your dd's teacher. Cow. What is she doing in teaching anyway? Should go and get a nice job in M&S, grading apples that don't talk back or (gasp) have ideas of their own. Dd1's teacher is off to a good start, having hived off the bottom maths group onto a separate teacher so that she can actually teach the rest of them something. dd1 enjoys the science! which is a first. And they seem to have lots of imaginative trips planned. So the runes are good, fingers crossed.

Thanks for that - didn't expect you to go through a book but has given me a good insight. We have had a similar breakthrough with Maths at our school so Yrs 5 and 6 are split between two teachers according to ability (did I just write that?!). DD is enjoying it hugely and they seem to be rattling through new things at quite a pace - perhaps they are catching up with what should have been done last year (just me being cynical). If only they would do the same with literacy...

Yoyo, I agree with frogs that Bond is a good name to go for; however her examples are verbal reasoning. If you want non verbal reasoning they cover that too (numbers, shapes, pattern similarities etc).
Sorry to be a pedant frogs.

Stilltrue - I had realised but assumed they would be good for VR and NVR. Are there any sites on the web which might be of use? Might have to be looking at all this for DD next year so perhaps I'll look into it more closely now without the pressure of "which school would be best?" as well.

Ah yes, fair cop. Thought you were asking about Verbal Reasoning, yoyo. So that's zero percent to frogs, then, for failing to read the question properly.

NVR are simpler in some ways, mainly variations on the theme of 'find the odd one out', but with shapes, patterns etc. Much harder, I find, but meant to be more culture-free.

Try\link{http://athey-educational.co.uk} this site; the papers would also be in large WHSmiths etc.

sorry link didn't work but at least you've got the details.

I can remember doing those sorts of tests when I was at Primary. Lots of wavy patterns in small boxes and completing sequences. They were used to measure IQ at the time I believe.

Frogs - how many times have you implored DD to "read the question properly"?! The VR stuff was useful for me though.

You can buy Bond's in good bookshops liek Waterstones and Ottakers in the education department. Have a look at the publisher's website where you can download some examples and order the age appropriate books direct.

hth

Many thanks LIZS. Have sent details of that to my friend. Should be plenty here for her to help her step-son.

Yoyo - there's a poetry competition on Blue Peter atm, but maximum 5 lines. Oh, I also think it may have to be something about a BP programme

If I get chance tomorrow I'll have a look in the file at school and see if we've got details of any current poetry competitions.

Great news about your dd's experience in ability classes