Advice re CEM exam for grammar school

[sleepwouldbenice]

Hi

the grammar schools in our area have announced they are changing to the above exams from next year - the reason given is that too many pupils were being tutored to pass and these exams do not require tutoring. Overall I feel this is a great idea

My DD is in year 4 and fairly bright in most subjects so I was considering putting her in for the exams

I really don't believe in tutoring and tutoring or "training" to pass the exams as I do think they will struggle with the expectations later on. On the other hand I don't want her chances scuppered just because she is not familiar with "exam technique" (eg staying calm, coming back to harder questions etc) and think she ought to have some practice just to have an idea of what to expect. I think I would also like an independent view on her chances of passing as the primary school stays quite neutral on this

Does anyone have any experience with this exam, if tutoring (either from parents or a paid tutor) would be any good if so for how long, are there past papers, any other hints and tips?

Just want to get the balance right to be honest - happy to do something for a few weeks or a year!

Thanks in advance

Most CEM tests are done online, not with pencil and paper.

Like the other CEM tests, they are designed to be computer adaptive, so I'd have thought that the 11+ test follows this model. (washediris - this makes sense?)

A quote from the CEM website:
"Since 1999 CEM has developed assessments with the aim of creating a fair selection process and have achieved this by drawing from research identifying the best predictors of later achievement.

The tests measure verbal, numerical and non-verbal skills and are available as paper and computer-based services to schools, trusts and authorities, for children predominantly of ages 10 to 11 years.

CEM strives to make the selection process fair for all candidates with assessments designed to enable all children to demonstrate their academic potential without excessive preparation. In order to maintain the fairness of the tests, CEM does not provide any commercially available practice materials, nor recommend any other commercially available materials."

That means, if it's not already clear, that there are NO official practice papers released by the CEM people in Durham.
Plenty of stuff available on Amazon of course, or you could spend yet more money on a tutor.

Washediris you may not be a veteran of the 11+ but any veteran will tell you that there are always kids in tears. When my DC helped out as sixth formers there was a dedicated room and dedicated sixth form students on hand to help with those kids who dissolved into tears. This has nothing whatsoever to do with CEM tests and everything to do with the fact that parents have been putting pressure on kids to pass for years and years and years. It's not news.

Yes well I've had eight pass the test and have had the eldest six all helping out at 11+ days including years when their siblings haven't been taking the test and I can assure you that every single year there are kids who can't hack it and burst into tears. This year with the CEM test they were actually more cheery/ less tears. I'm going to call rank on this one: tears have nothing whatsoever to do with the CEM tests and everything to do with the parents - and that's what's not changing anytime soon.

Most CEM tests are done online, not with pencil and paper

I am not sure if this is true, perhaps some but none I know of. At least in Bexley this September it was still all pen and paper. They needed a ruler too so don't know how measurements would work on a computer and I don't know of many regions who would be geared up to thousands of computers in an invigilated environment all at the same time.

Which brings me to the skill of juggling question paper with answer paper with note paper. Mock tests really helped DD with this. It may seem trivial but is surprisingly tricky. I have heard horrors where a child got out of sequence between questions and answer sheet and it really made a mess of her result.

Bucks is Durham CEM and all children take the tests in their own primary schools because is it an opt out system. There are two tests taken in the September of Y6 and they are 45 minutes long.

Every year in the local press there are tales less children from Bucks passing so there are more and more out of County children in the grammar schools. Cue lots of unhappy Bucks parents. I do not really know if the exam is tutor-proof but so many are still tutored. It makes parents feel they have at least tried. Some are tutored for several years but plenty of these fail, as they did with the old VR exam. That was time constrained too. Children need to work swiftly and accurately. They also need the exam technique of not spending ages on one question they cannot answer. They need to mark it and move onto the next. Go back to it if time permits. A couple of unanswered questions may not be such a big problem as a whole load unanswered because the child ran out of time. Generally, though, the brightest with potential are getting to the grammar schools but it will be interesting to see if the middle achievers reduce to 0% when the CEM examined children are 100% of the grammar school population. At the moment there are around 10% of middle achievers in some of the grammar schools so it may suggest the exam can be tutored.

The CEM tests used by grammars are the ones researched and produced by Durham and they are marked by computer but a number of grammars are still using supplementary tests of their own, although I expect they'll drop those soon.

I'm not clear what you mean you can't go back in the CEM tests. The material is mixed up which helps kids who are more comfortable in one area than another, thereby reducing anxiety not increasing it. The instructions are recorded on a CD but that's all a CD has to do with it.

There's absolutely nothing new in that advice given about not lingering and moving on, that's been the advice given by all schools administering the test for ever. It doesn't require a tutor, just a parent with an ounce of common sense.

Of course tutors are going to insist they're still essential and of course they're going to ramp up the exclusivity of the advice they can give but it's down to the bleeding obvious really. It will take a few years for the effects to percolate down, but tutors are not going to give any real advantage with the new tests beyond that which an ordinarily sensible parent can give.

Also recycling, be wary of the commercially available materials because they don't replicate the real thing, so it's important kids know that or it could throw them on the day.

Still pen and pencil here too.

Molio, when I say you can't got back, the question paper (at least here) is an A4 booklet. Other than the comprehension section, each "Section" is a double page spread (i.e. the left and right hand side of the booklet). So the CD tells the children that you have 4 minutes or whatever to complete that section (fully contained on that double page spread). They are only allowed to work on the questions on that double page spread (if that makes sense), they can't turn the page of the question booklet to either the next section or the previous section. When the 4 minutes are up, the CD says something like "Now turn over the page to Section 3. You have 6 minutes to answer this section of 20 questions" or whatever it is, and again, its the same - a double page spread with no page turning allowed.

FWIW, we used a private tutor and it was useful for a number of things. Firstly she taught various short cuts (a quicker way of doing some of the maths questions) to save time, she had child-friendly acronyms for ways to tackle various problems, it was 1:1 time with no interruptions, no parent-child issues (cross with him for not tidying his bedroom or whatever).

But most importantly, it was a confidence thing, certainly for my DS who was in the "should pass but not certain" category. She told him he could do it, matched his preparation to him, his pace, his ability. Built him up in a way that I couldn't replicate - I always tell him he's capable, but he understood she was an ex-headmistress, knew she's been tutoring for years and hearing her say it really resonated with him. I'm self aware enough to know that I couldn't have given him that. Thats just our situation - with different parents / different children of course you can do it yourself and don't need to have a private tutor. But certainly for us, with the benefit of hindsight, it wasn't just about the actual work.

Washediris can I ask how you can compare the relative stress of the two types of test? Is this from having had sight of both types of test? The intention is not to add pressure but specifically to negate the effect of tutoring. I haven't heard anywhere that DC are finding the new test more stressful.

Look at the CEM website: www.cem.org/entrance-assessments
Then follow the links.

You will see that there are several options open to schools: computer based OR pencil and paper tests, and within the former there are two or more kinds of test.

My understanding is that the computer based tests are indeed "computer adapative" in contrast to the paper and pencil tests; candidates who do well get moved on to harder questions.

Note also "Parents should always be wary of any materials or services offered by third parties. These will not have been developed by CEM and will not necessarily bear any relation to the tests we provide. Parents are advised to exercise extreme caution should they choose to engage with any such third party in this regard."

I'll wager something else entirely, based on the fact that certain grammar schools over recent years have had extremely varied numbers succeeding from the independent sector with the variation attributable to no obvious cause - there isn't an upward trend. The CEM tests are very likely, in time, to do what they claim on the tin.

Oh ok about the 'general consensus' over your way. There was no such consensus over my way, the kids seemed as chirpy as they usually do although admittedly I haven't got the exact number of DC who cried and had to be taken out of the room this year, or compared it to recent years. All I do know for sure is that there have always been kids who cried when faced with the old tests and I haven't heard reports of legions of kids being taken out of the room this year (first year of CEM), simply reports that the general atmosphere was positive.

There will always be sharks out there purporting to have materials which help but if I was a parent I'd take far more notice of the warning CEM gives than of any fake stuff on the internet.

And would explain why private schools performed well under the new test as they traditionally work a year ahead of the primary curriculum.

There were reports that the numbers of private school kids passing the test increased in the first year of CEM in a certain area. That was much publicized. The numbers in certain other areas this year have declined but I don't know what the figures were in the first area this year and I don't expect they've been made public yet. It will be interesting to see.

Link?! No, sorry :) It's not so hard for some people Washediris. This sort of data is being collected all the time by the relevant people but the reports always come much later.