What was on Bucks 11+ last year?

[mrsbaffled]

My DS will be taking the Bucks 11+ in Sept. I was wondering what sort of questions were on it last year.
Am I right it is Verbal reasoning, NVR and numerical reasoning?
I have a CEM example paper and the synonym questions involve spelling the words....my son has SpLD and finds this type of spelling question extremely hard. Was this type of qu on the test, or was it all multiple choice questions with no spelling element?
TIA

Anyone ?

Hi MrsBaffled nothing was allowed to be published for last years new 11+ but it is based on VR, NVR, comprehension/cloze and maths I believe. I also understand that the VR part last year was a lot on vocab and synonyms and antonyms. It is all multiple choice.

My DS will be sitting it in Bucks in September too so I'll bite my nails with you if you like!

My son sat it last September - I'll be honest, he said it was hard. Very quick fire questions of the type that TheSmallPrint has described. The time pressure was the hardest aspect to cope with I think. Yes, it was all multiple choice. He did pass though, so it can't have been that bad.

Yes I think the timing is crucial as you get a set amount of time for each section. If you have spare time on one part you can't move on and use it on the next - harsh! Also they now sit them both tests on the same day and take an average score instead of taking the best one which they used to do. I have to say I'm not looking forward to this year!

One thing I would add - ds sat the familiarisation test on Tuesday then the actual test on Thursday. The familiarisation test was easy and bore no relation at all to the actual test. Some of the children looked to be in shock when they came out of the actual test, many saying they hadn't managed to finish the paper. For that reason I'd suggest you get your dcs used to doing a wide variety of papers, so that nothing comes as a a surprise on the day.

Thanks Shred that's very interesting (and very worrying!). We're trying to do lots of general stuff at the moment but will start looking at practice papers soonish.

What did you find the most useful resources?

We did everything we could lay our hands on! Think the ones ds liked best were the CGP papers (we did standard answer and multiple choice because he was sitting the Herts consortium test too).

I'll have a look at those thanks.

Look at the Buckinghamshire section of the forum on www.elevenplusexams.co.uk for advice on preparing for the new CEM exam.

Can someone post me an example of an 11 plus test please?

You won't find one specifically for Bucks now - the test changed for the first time last September, with the view of making it less tutor-proof. Even the familiarisation paper the children were given two days before the actual test bore very little resemblance to the test they actually took. Your best bet is to look at the 11+ forum and cobble together as wide a range of question types from there as you can, using the recommended materials section at the top of the Bucks forum posts.

I'm looking for a tutor - any recommendations? in the Wycombeish area...

Twist - Amersham
Flying Start - Chesham
Susan Daughtrey - Gerrards Cross

Thanks, all. We have been working through the Bond 10 minute tests as well which he finds really easy apart from the spelling-type questions. He gets the right word, but spells it wrong, so I guess that would be a wrong answer in a written test. I am hoping that the multiple choice element eliminates the need to spell correctly?

I would really focus on the spelling mrsbaffled because sometimes the multiple choice answers can be incredibly close to each other (or wilfully confusing as my ds always said!)

We have been working on it since year 2. At home and 1-1 at school. He is quite profoundly dyslexic when it comes to spelling, but it doesn't affect his reading. He is able to pick out correct spellings in a list, just not write them down from nothing.