St Olave's Mock test

[southeastmum2014]

Dear 11+ Mums,
Any one here who took two mock test at St Olave's? I need some help please. My son reported that they gave the same Mock paper to him. He took the first mock on 3rd of June and the second one on 17th of June and said the question paper was same. They charge £60 for each test. I just felt it was unfair to repeat the question paper and make us pay £60 for each sitting. I understand the mock test is run by parents but nothing on the webpage says that we will repeat the mock paper.

user3009 we are in a similar position. DS is top in maths/english at primary and has tutor once a week but judging by his results I'm not sure he will get a place at grammar. Skinners is our nearest in TW but their average mark last year was 386 which seems to equate to about 91% (top marks 423). Kind of wish we had never started down this path now!

user 224 I suspect the St O's mock was harder than the Kent test but as it is a percentage of the cohort and not the exam it shows many of those you are up against did better in the exam. (but I'm still baffling over 'backwards paragraphs')

Thank you very much user 30224. I will try to get sample papers. St Olaves Parents association advertises the exam as the hardest compared to other mock test in the market.

Mamas, I think it is still worth trying.

Does anybody know of a good mock test for the Sutton grammars?what other papers, materials can we use to prepare DD for the exam?

The GL papers are the most useful tests I think. There are 8 packs with four papers in each pack. Speed is the key for the Kent and Sutton tests.

Thank you very much MrsPatmore; I will get the tests you recommended. Also, what sort of literature should my daughter be reading to help increase her vocabulary, improve reading comprehension and verbal reasoning. Thanks in advance

Think along the lines of 'The Hobbit' etc - quality literature. The comp in the St Olaves test last year was 'Pig Heart Boy' by Malorie Blackmon. The Bond 'How to do Comprehension' is good. Also look on Amazon for how to achieve Level 6 writing books (old Sats levels).

Thank you for this Mrs Patmore

@mamslatts it's not a percentage, it's a standardised score, I believe so there is no way of knowing what the actual percentage needed is (it will vary each year & by birth month, or those born in September MAY need a higher raw score to get the same standardised score).

My son did dreadfully in the mock test too (btw, I worked out approximately how much money the PTA would have made from those tests and felt fairly queasy. Not to mention the v small sample papers they were flogging at the open day for £10 each). He actually did really well in the comprehension and horrendously in the rest. He's also top of the class in his very high-performing school. I believe it's the system that's at fault here, not the kids.

I'm on the periphery of this 11+ malarky for various reasons, and fwiw, my observations are:-

• does it really matter if it was the same paper? It's unlikely that a child will have remembered all of the correct answers. Unless he got 100% the second time around and finished miles ahead of time, sitting the paper would still highlight areas to work on, and hopefully have demonstrated progress since the last test? (Although I do agree that the publicity should have been more explicit about the fact that all the sittings used the same paper.)

• the money goes to the PTA, which will then be spent on funding school trips, enrichment activities etc. I think it's a bit extreme to call raising funds for this 'unethical'.

• all any exam tests is how many marks the child gets in that exam on that day. The reality is that intensive tutoring/sitting lots of mocks is likely to get a child better marks than a broad, 'let's enrich their education' approach to the 11+. This makes it a highly unintelligent system, but it is what it is.