It's beyond me how any child manages to pass the grammar school test

[emkana]

We're not there yet (oldest child is 7) but some friends are and they are telling me about it and it sounds horrendous - the pressure, and such random and difficult questions - and 80 questions in 50 minutes!!!

pointydog, someone down the thread suggested putting a couple of questions up to see how hard they are/are not.

I didn't read that it was 4 letters! I think I will leave the thread.

We have given up on the bbc verbal reasoning one..and my head is hurting at having to do this again with dd2 in a couple of years.

lol - sorry abbey. With a little tutoring, you will pas standing on your head

I can remember nothing about my own 11plus. Other than apparently, I failed appallingly on the maths paper, but my English score was exceptionally high so they let me in. It all went downhill from there

what a crappy system... what if you're bright but your parents aren't willing or able to coach you or pay a tutor?

seems very young for kids to be under such pressure. what if your friends got in but you didn't?

pointydog. I won't dare comment further! I suppose a tutor could point out that you need to concentrate!

isnt it x and + ?

or am i not grammar school material ?

The point about tutoring is to give the children practice adn gain familiarity with the format of the questions - not to coach them through it.

In addition, state primary schools follow the national curriculum and this does not include covering some of the things that are included in some of our grammar school entrance exams. For example, the children sit the exams at the very start of year 6 but the papers include maths that they are yet to cover. Without teaching them this, they have no chance because they are competing with children in private schools, that do not follow the NC, and that do cover these topics before they come to the papers. The children in the state primary are just as bright, and just as able to 'cope' at grammar school - they are just not taught the same things.

Of course, nobody would put their child through intense coaching to get into a school they were clearly unsuited to, surely?

or divide and subtract

There are two answers, Mary and Combustiblelemon are both right-unless I have put my foot in it again!

I moved away from a grammar school area Gobbledigook and I know several DCs who got in through intense coaching-they were unsuited.

We're in Kent. The reason we still have grammar schools is the vast majority of the parents supported the system and didn't want it changed.

Most people here don't "tutor" their kids. They buy the practice papers, because you need sight of the format rather than go in cold, but you can't "teach" it. You either get it or you don't. Nobody gets to see the "actual" paper until the day and everyone takes it on the same day.

you can teach strategies. And I'd say that is teaching it.

ds1 went to state primary and was given good preparation.
Admittedly here they only currently do non verbal reasoning. Which is do able as ds is now yr10 and evidence of coached kids is huge at his grammar. Several really struggling now

Ds1 just had his on Saturday,

So glad its over,
He had 2 papers

verbal reasoning 50mins 20 min break
then 45mins

He gets his results in two weeks.

I gave him the choice to do it or not
very difficult as local comp a dump, so feel like we're forced into grammar nightmare.

BTW the best free site I found was
www.chuckra.co.uk

They have free practice papers and on line tests.

Also videos explaining how to do the different style of questions

Dd1s school would have nothing to do with the 11 plus. The head herself failed and held a meeting for the year 5 parents positively discouraging anyone from taking the 11plus.
The stategys I sent dd in with, were, if you dont know the answer, work out what answer it ISNT. Then that will give you a better chance at guessing the right answer.
Dont waste time on questions you really dont understand, do the ones you do know then go back to the ones you didnt get instantly.
She goes to a rubbish primary school(but has always been on top sets there, and always been happy) and was competing against others whos parents had paid £35 an hour to tutor them.
There are still some 11 plus questions, she, and I dont get. But as the pass rate was 50% it was fine.

I'm in Bexley which has 11+ - DD will be taking it next year. After all the hoo-har at school recently over the 11+ I am dreading it. The pushy mums, the competitiveness, the stress involved, the poor kids faces on 11+ day .

My DD will explode if I put the least amount of pressure on her, she is just like that - panics under pressure of tests (like her mother!) - if she passes it is meant to be but I don't see the point in tutoring for 11+.

Tutor, by all means, if your child is failing badly in a subject to bring them up to speed but if they need tutoring in everything to pass then they will surely struggle at grammar school?

UnfortunatelyMurderedMe
I tryed to find out what percentage we should be aiming for and couldn't find out anywhere,

Where did you get the 50% for a pass from if you don't mind me asking?

Kbear I though Ds was taking it amazingly well on sat,
but just before bed he burst into tears and said he was really stressed
poor lad

It was on this site, talking about the standardised scores, because an older child has to get more correct than a younger one to make it fairer
What area are you in, I will see if I can suss it out for you.

I was told 118 / 140. somewhere around 85%

UnfortunatelyMurderedMe
Thanks for that web site really usefull
looks like at least over 80% for any of the ones we've looked at,
Live in Gloucestershire.
One of them you need a whopping 95%

kbear - my ds sat the bexley test & failed (by 1 mark) this year. his school is one of the 'best' in bexley, ofsted outstanding etc - the only children who passed from the school were those who have been tutored from early year 5 - or before. ds is top of his class, & outperforms those kids all the time - but in class they do nat curriculum only, and the test appears to have no connection whatsoever to this......hence the only children who passed were those who had been taught the stuff that is covered in the test which they dont do at school!

sorry am still re whole thing, have been told by everyone for years how clever my ds is, we all stupidly thought he'd walk it (you will know the non-grammar alternatives in bexley are pretty horrendous); am hoping a few feelers re jobs etc come thru so i can move area - or at least have plans in place - before the cut-off date at the end of the year, otherwise poor ds is stuck with a school that i have spent the last 7 years saying he would go to omdb

I'm far from a 'pushy parent', indeed, my Ds will not be pushed. I gave him a few online practises, but he was very reluctant to do them. He passed on his own merit as far as I'm concerned and I would never have had him tutored because I wouldn't want him to struggle in a Grammar school if he didn't belong there.
Ds's primary school is Catholic and they were quite active in pushing us away from putting our Dc's in for the selective tests/11+.
Kids should go to schools that they are suitable to go to. It shouldn't be down to parents to push for the better schools. It's about ability in a child and where they are most likely to flourish and grow and be happy. I'd hate my Dc's to dread school because I'd pushed them.