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11+ practice papers

4 replies

Isabella32 · 24/11/2011 12:50

Hi there,

My son is going to be taking his 11+ next year in the London area. He struggles a bit with English comprehension. Does anyone know where I can get some good 11+ practice papers from?

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hopenglory · 24/11/2011 12:52

Ask the school where he will be sitting it what papers they use - normally they will give you the name of the company that produces them. Other than that - Bond - the 10 minute tests and the full papers seem to be used commonly

betterwhenthesunshines · 24/11/2011 14:19

Also if it's comprehension that he finds tricky, then get him involved in discussions with you about whatever book he's reading: Why do you think the character did that? What might happen next? Why did the author choose that word? Can you think of another way of describing....? etc. Looking at the papers will help you see what they are looking for. Encourage him to 'extend' his answers. ie he gives you an answer and you can prompt some more... "because...?" "and then...?"

milkshake3 · 24/11/2011 21:57

Try the Galore Park website. They sell ISEB publications. I found them really good (and you can buy the answer book so DC can see what a perfect answer would be). They have lots of 11+ geared material and I would also recommend the So You Really Want to Learn English books. Explore the chapter you can view online to gauge the right level for your DC. I'm a mum who has used these books, not a representative of the company (incase this sounds like an ad!). HTH

HelenT100 · 26/11/2011 10:59

If he's doing an Independent exam in Jan 2012 then you have little time. If he's doing the exam at the end of 2012 then you have more time. I am fortunate enough to have two children who got through and comprehension is one of the most difficult areas.

Don't worry everyone finds it difficult, even adults struggle to cope with a whole page of deconstructed dickens.

Unless you are going for outside help ( not always good with comprehension anyway) I'd ( shock horror) suggest practice papers are NOT the way forward..... read lots, and I mean lots. Read classic books, do some reading together, discuss the story to check comprehension ( can be done in a fun way), play some vocab games like scrabble, get a list of synonyms and opposites from the internet ( a long list)..... it's really very difficult for a child to just leap straight into practice papers if the problem is with their core English skills. Doing paper after paper won't unfortunately boost their vocab for instance.

It's a really tough thing to do so the very best of luck. If you only until Jan it will be difficult to make much difference. One thing I wouldn't do is to do tests that are not the length he will experience in the actual test. The reason for this is that often the comprehension passage is quite and requires them to really concentrate for say 50 minutes. Better to get used to that than do lots of ten minute tests I'd say.

Good luck..... whatever happens the work you do will help so it's not going to be wasted even if they don't get in.

If you have more time then try LessonsinthePost if you want to. Worked really well for me. or perhaps a Private Tutor who specialises in 11 Plus (watch out for the cost) but word of warning it does require work but then again everything does if you want to compete. I wish others didn't do so much with their kids then we could just turn up on the day and we'd see if they were good enough or not.

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