11+ GL exam timing

[Feefour]

Hello, I wonder if anyone can help with this, please? DH and I are hoping to tutor dd ourselves, as much as possible (we are both secondary teachers and hope we might be able to do it).

However, I’m struggling to find information on the exact timings of the GL exams, other than vague statement like each section is ‘usually 45 minutes’ . We keep reading how important it is to do timed exam practice, but this seems more difficult if we don’t know the exact marks / minute. I keep worrying that this is the sort of insider knowledge we might need a tutor for, but we can’t really afford it if we can help it!

Thank you for any information!

Which area? Have you looked on the eleven plus forum website?

The GL tests I am using are 50 minutes for the verbal 80 questions,and the non verbal is 6 minutes per section 12 questions per section.

Is this for this year's tests?

Thank you @wormshuffled! it’s for the 2023 test, so perhaps that changes things?

I will look on that forum, thank you @Nonameoclue.

No it doesn't change anything, was thinking you may be cutting it fine if just starting for this year's tests.

The timings I've described have been the format here for at least a decade.
Having assisted my 3 through it I wouldn't worry about timings yet. Get the methods sussed first and try to encourage your child to read read read, and for it to be differing language styles. As alot of the questions involve the use of words they may not have yet come across.

Good luck!

Which area, OP? GL covers a few local authorities, with different times.

@Pommes We’re in West Yorkshire, and applying to the Halifax grammar schools.

www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/schools/regions/yorkshire-11-plus

I don't know how up to date this is, mind you

Thank you all.

Can I ask - do you think it’s possible to tutor effectively ourselves, or should we be paying a tutor? We are both teachers as I said earlier (one English, one maths), and will obviously be doing 1 - 1 as opposed to the group of 10 we looked at for tutoring. But we don’t know the exam format as well as the tutor does!

This won't go down well on here, but if your child needs intensive tutoring outside the London "bubble", they won't be happy in a selective school. By all means go over the types of question they will need to answer and do some practice ones, but don't spend hours or lots of money on tutoring. I teach in a selective school in SW England and those who have been heavily tutored simply can't cope with the pace once they start. Neither of my own DDs was tutored; we worked through the Bond books for VR and did a couple of practice GL papers. Both DDs are now at university.

Check out the types of paper your DC will be doing and if you are both secondary teachers, you are more than capable of explaining them to your child. Make it fun and if they don't enjoy it, think again.

I agree, you don’t need to get a tutor; we helped all three of our kids ourselves and all three are in grammar schools now. I do think they need help with familiarising themselves with the kind of questions they will get, especially for verbal reasoning. And they do need to be taught exam technique like timings, not spending too long on a question, when it’s good to just take a guess etc. Most 10 years olds have never done tests like these before!!

In maths we have noticed too that a few things are not covered till year 6 such as ratios, so it might be worth making sure they know how to do everything too.

I do think if your child is up to it and gets some good exam techniques, then a tutor shouldn’t be needed. The head of one of the schools advised 10 mins practice a day and doing some timed mock tests in September before the exams. We pretty much stuck to that and all was good.

In terms of exact lengths of GL exams, they do actually change year on year, at least they have in this area! And we were not told about the changes! It’s only five mins here and there but after our first daughter faced five mins extra and more questions for one of her tests, we taught our kids to just take it as it comes and not to panic!

Enjoy the process and hope it’s not too stressful! x

@Feefour DS took the 11+ last year. We started some work around this time of year (last minute decision to sit the test). I purchased GL papers from the website as I didn't have a clue what the verbal and non verbal tests were

He attended a tuition centre anyway (home schooled so his 'outside' input).

He got a place (and will be starting in September- also a school in Yorkshire).
Just to add I'm not a teacher either

Just to add, I agree, don't 'over tutor' your child. The tuition centre did what I did and went through some papers (and I ordered the same pack 🤦🏽‍♀️ so we shared that part of the teaching 😂)

They told me, if he can't pass the test without extensive tutoring, grammar school won't be the right place for him.

Hope that helps 😊