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Secondary education

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Reading Comprehension for the 11+

3 replies

IDugUpADiamond · 16/01/2014 09:42

Not sure this is the right place to post this but does anyone know what the best test books to prepare for the 11+ reading comprehension section are? I find that Bond books are really difficult and they cannot really reflect the actual test because the test is multiple choice. Thanks.

OP posts:
sleeplessknights · 16/01/2014 11:45

At this level don't worry about the format. Indeed the advice for doing Read Comp is to get the answer and then see if it there as a choice, otherwise dc can be thown by the distractor (or whatever it is called). If you want to frighten yourself then look at Manchester Grammar English papers and also the North London Girls School Consortium papers (look at City of London girls admissions page for links) There are also lots of publications that do a format of Multi Choice papers. Try to get an idea of what is required for the schools your dc is sitting as year on year the question style tends to be similar. Will there be a (relatively) 'easy marks' section on grammar asking dc to identify the preposition , adverb etc and spelling section which should be based on KS2. If so make sure your child is prepared for that e,g It's raining outside is different to Outside the station. The key as everyone says is vocab vocab vocab. Yes there are apps, endless deadly workbooks and lots of kind mums on websites typing up lists of words that have appeared the previous year but if your dc are not reading all these in context then they are very hard to learn. This said there are usually a couple of questions on how characters are feeling so I suppose you could ensure that you child knows the difference between eg tarumatised and hysterical, apprehensive and terrified, cross and livid. At least with multi choice they can have a go whereas with some of the written answers as we see on here all the time dc come out very demoralised that they missed out two 5 mark questions , when asked to define words just have no idea and leave 4 out of 5 blank. Which area of the country are you or is this for an independent school. There is plenty of advice on here and other sites and commercial websites. If you want practice nearer the time sign up to BOFA as this is pay per month and has, if I remember from last year when dc were willing to do it, only multi choice questions.

IDugUpADiamond · 16/01/2014 11:55

sleeplessknights, I am so grateful for your answer, thank you. My DS reads non stop, always has, but I suspect he reads so fast he fails to take a lot of the detail in. His numeracy is extremely strong as is his NVR. is VR is not bad and getting better. Reading Comprehension however is becoming a nightmare at home and I feel the Bond books are partly to blame. He will be sitting the Kent test in September (for the grammars, not independent). I'll take a look at BOFA, never heard of it. Thanks again.

OP posts:
LadyMuck · 16/01/2014 12:53

Kent didn't have a multiple choice comprehension last year?

If they have introduced it this year then you need to do the GL papers as GL set the Kent test.

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