11+ How smart do you need to be?

[Reluctantadult]

Would you say? I know I could look up stats but they don't mean much to me. Can anyone make it more real?

I've been surprised by a friends daughter having failed. She's a nice girl, seems decently smart and applied herself well. Had 1yr of tutoring.

Totally depends on the area and the schools you want to apply to. Some areas have lots of grammars and so take the top 20-25% (eg Kent), some area have very few so will be looking at the top 5%. Even in Kent, although up to 25% will pass, some individual schools will only take the top 5-10% of their applicants. Might help if you say roughly whether you're in a grammar area or not. But generally children should be working above expected in maths and English in Y4 and 5 to be in with a decent chance, then the variables above come into play.

Top 20% of the class - for dd that means being in the top half of the top set for maths as a rough guesstimate. You also need to have a good day and potentially, depending on where you are in that top 20%, have the questions/topics on your side, especially for English where it can be quite focused on one text and if you don't get on with that style or miss an important nuance, it might be a struggle.

Basically, it's a pretty blunt tool

It depends on which schools the 11+ is for and often on how the rest of that year group did that year.

Did she “fail” though. DS goes to a super selective grammar. There’s no pass mark. The top scoring 150 get a place.

As far as my DS goes, his CAT scores during primary put him in the top 1% nationally but he only just scraped into his grammar school. He did have a bad day when he took the exam and I think the nerves got to him. However, his test results to date whilst at the grammar have always been in the top half of the year and many have been in the top 10 per cent.

I'm in Gloucestershire, so unfortunately we've got some pretty hard grammars here. Pate's, Denmark Road, the Crypt, Tommy's, Ribston.

There's only one state secondary in my town and I don't have a good feel.

I failed and then went on to get a first at University in a science subject

It's not just smart, it's quick enough to answer the questions in time, and luck of the draw on the day for what comes up.

My two passed and were offered grammar places. I very much doubt they scored well on verbal reasoning and English. DS2 never got above 60% practising-sometimes he only got 40%. He will have got full marks or close to in maths and non-verbal reasoning.

In our area you never know their actual score, just the standardised score which can be weighted however they want. Where you live is also important, we are out of catchment and there aren't many of those places available.

... But generally children should be working above expected in maths and English in Y4 and 5 to be in with a decent chance...

Thanks this is helpful!

Ideal 11+ candidate: In the top group for Maths/English. Keen/academic/motivated. The kind of child who, when you put a load of questions in front of them, cracks on and sees it as a challenge. Good at spelling, wide vocabulary, fairy keen reader. Knows times tables by heart. Quick mental arithmetic. Confident in all the basic maths operations. Keen to learn and improve.

Of course that's not a real person but you get the gist!

That sounds as much about attitude as intelligence.

As others have said it varies so much by area, and catsnore has very effectively described the skills of the ideal candidate. I think also being calm and confident in an exam environment is essential. My daughter sat and passed the test for Skipton Girls this year, the required pass mark for that school which is targeting kids in the top 25%. That seems to be targeting a standardised score of around 110-115 on each paper. For other super selective schools that could be much higher. Our state primary school (I think most schools) do a termly set of GL assessments, the format is different to 11 plus but they use the same age standardised scoring, so you can get a good idea from those scores as to what level your child is working at. You could ask school for the scores if they are not usually sent home. We got the papers sent home at end of Year 5, but that was the first time I'd seen them.