SPGS Pre-Test

[PatoPato]

Does anyone know whether the SPGS CEM based pre-test displays an onscreen clock?
I've heard the test is made up of short but very time pressured sections so the clock would be useful. The familiarisation test does not show a clock.
It would be great to hear feedback from anyone who sat it last year!

You can absolutely ask the admissions office that sort of thing. They're very nice. You never know - especially at the moment - what might have changed since last time.

In the demo that they sent us there was no clock but there was a prompt that tells you when your time is almost up. I would also be interested in some feedback regarding just how time constrained this is so I can let my daughter know how fast she needs to go or that she shouldn't feel alarmed if she doesn't finish all the questions. I'm also interested to know if it is adaptive like the ISEB, in which case speed might not necessarily be the best approach.

They say its adaptive, though 4 years ago when my DD took it she said that she didn't notice that the questions got harder. Speed is important on the maths, from what I heard from last year's girls, there was an awful lot of the maths to get through in a short period of time.

We have the CEM computer test tomorrow. All done and dusted in less than an hour. I'm thinking speed may be our downfall on the sections, but keen to get it done.

Interestingly PatoPato, DD complained today that there was no clock, simply a quick warning that there was 1 minute remaining.
I suppose it's not really important, but I think it threw her a little.

@dinosaurinmybelly DD said it was very time pressured, esp NVR. She didn't think it was adaptive. There were no sections where she had to answer a question before being able to move onto the next question and the sections were surprisingly short - 3mins 30 seconds in one instance.

I was very interested to hear what she had to say about it as there is absolutely nothing online despite all my googling. No-one seems to have shared any wisdom on it on previous posts/other forums. Maybe because it's closely guarded - who knows. I wonder if tutors give their clients an insight. We rather naively have not tutored so are flying solo with this application

I think the girls block it out as well. I asked my DD and she could only remember the VR being tricky and my friend's daughter stumbled in the maths.

Also for what it's worth my DD thought that she had failed it. I hope your DD is taking a well deserved sigh of relief. ♥️

We have CEM tomorrow and couldn't find much on it either, seems to be a lot more info on ISEB. If you have any useful info I would be grateful and fingers crossed it goes well for you all.

I think the different schools that use it 'design' their own tests so DD said this one today just had matrices in the NVR, all the maths was drag and drop and there was a lot of vocab she did not know. I wanted a full blow by blow account of each section but she couldn't even remember doing a VR section until I asked her for a third time!
I had to pay for my questions with Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream

Thank you @PatoPato. All done and dusted for us- NVR and Maths were good, VR was filling in the words to a passage (automated after the first two letters were added), approx 45 words. We didn't have a tutor and worked on Bond/CGP workbooks, on-line papers since Sunday. Lets see what January brings.

Hope everyone had good news from SPGS yesterday. DD relieved here having done the ISEB and CEM in quick succession and found them to be very different assessments.

Happy to hear that the SPGS next stage will be at the school. This will be the first proper school "visit" for DD.

Because of the lengths SPGS go to in their selection process there is no way they could do anything other than host in school I guess. And yes it's wonderful they actually get to go into a school, although from my point of view it seems daunting against the backdrop of ISEB almost elsewhere else. It's been a pretty 'cosy' process so far.

Bit concerned about DD having to wear a mask with her glasses - we've not yet found a way to stop them steaming up!

It may look silly but putting a band-aid at the bridge of the nose on top of the mask to create a seal has worked like a charm for me in terms of preventing steamed up glasses! I believe there is also a spray you can get on your glasses that makes them stop steaming up but I haven't tried it.

@charlottemont - thank you! I've done a little online shopping & have found something that looks promising.

I'm now thinking it's highly unlikely SPGS will be able to host 4 groups of girls (usually around 400-ish?) at the school next week.

Keen to get this next stage done though. 11+ prep is always a drag over Christmas, but even more so this year. Anyone else in the same boat?

I'm not so sure - I think the situation will only change if the government rules (in the next 4 days) that primary schools are not allowed to go back on Monday 4th.
The candidates are all primary aged children who'd be going back on the 4th anyway and these secondary schools are generally much bigger and can easily host the children in socially distanced groups of 10 in a classroom.
I'd think schools like Ibstock (sitting the next day) will have the bigger issue of number of computer terminals in play at any one time (and wiping them down between candidates).

You are so right about it being SUCH a drag. It's just sucked whatever little joy has been left of this Christmas.

Gove was pretty clear this morning that primary schools will go back on Monday

So LBHF primary schools are not going back on Monday
What do we think SPGS will do?!