11+ Preparation - Need some Advice

[ComfortFoodCorner]

Hi,

My daughter is sitting for 11+ exams this year (GL format). We live in Birmingham, in KE Camp Hill Catchment. She is doing ok in her studies. We are not going for any tuitions, but she studies with me every day. I have few questions with the preparation material. Kindly could someone help me with your experience please?

1. There are loads of prep materials, it's so overwhelming. We did 9-10 years CGP books, she got on well. So we are now working in 10-11 CGP books. ALL CGP, no other books. The are so many names, we decided to stick with just CGP as looks like it will take the entire year to get through CGP materials alone. Are there any other books that is highly recommended, that we are missing out? We are aiming for Camp Hill Grammar school, and if we couldn't get there, our next options are KEHS Independent school, or Solihull Independent school. I have heard that KEHS questions are tough, so wondering if CGP books alone are sufficient for KEHS exams?
2. Is it enough if she practises in 10-11 level? I saw some kids in her school carrying 11-12 years Bond books, and was overwhelmed thinking how on earth would we finish 10-11 on time to go on to 11-12?
3. My daughter took a mock exam early this month. That was before we started 10-11 practice books. She scored 99 for 150. Not sure how to interpret this score as the Grammar exam scores are for 260. Do they convert the score for 150 to 260? I am not sure if 99/150 is a good score, but I am also not too worried as we haven't started our full-fledged preparation. My daughter is October born, one of the oldest in her year group - I was told she might be losing marks for age. Would she be losing a lot, any advice on that would he very helpful.
4. Is there any preferred place for Mock exams? As I said my daughter is not going to any tuitions, so mock exams are the only way for me to gauge her improvement. So I want to pick the centres whose exams could give me a clear indication.

Thank you for patiently reading my queries. Any advice or guidance will be gratefully received.

Good Luck to all the children who are taking their exams this year.!

The results you get are not percentage based. I would say that percentage is very good if you had not started 10 to 11 + books. My child did gl and CEM and some privates. We never got through all the nooks at all - but did do 10 to 11 plus for maths. You can check bond books for GL papers and you can purchase some mocks.

My child was the oldest too. You do lose marks but it isn't that simple it is usually a massive advantage to be that bit older and maturer. Older kids have been around longer so should naturally have more language acquisition.

What you need to check for gl is that you pass each separate exam - some people fall down on that. And from April I would introduce more mocks and be stricter about timings too. Feel freee to pm and I can check my child's raw scares for the gl exam he sat.

in effect the scores are standardised - like a bell curve. I was told to aim higher for mocks at home and accept that nerves may bring down a score. Whatever you do feel your child theu have done brilliantly. My child clearly failed some mocks at home but I didn't relay that - as didn't want to dent confidence.

Also be very clear to not read into what others are doing - people do absolutely crazy prep - there will always be someone doing more and there will be people doing more and say they do nothing. Don't worry about others just keep going. Doing work every day is brilliant - just have a strategy for how your will cover the ground work and when you will up mock tests.

For private school entry you could have a look at atom learning and ask the school as to the format.

The KEHS exam is tough(ish).

It usually includes comprehension on a poem or piece or prose and a piece of creative writing. I think there are also some grammar questions but don't quote me. Whatever happens DO NOT go in with a prepared piece of creative writing as applicants can be disqualifed for this it must be true to the question.

Maths for KES at least is negatively scored in section A so you have to teach them not to answer if they're not at least reasonably sure. Section B is more complex and gets increasingly difficult towards the end. I believe the KEHS papers are similar.

If you look on the KEHS website here you'll find links to sample papers If you message me privately, I may possibly have an old KES paper but will need to check - they tend to be hard to get hold of as they're slightly secretive about it but we're done with it. DS has ended up on the KES waiting list which is torture as we won't know until mid to late March

you can join atom and do tests - you get a free 5 day trial and can do some iseb exams just to see the percentages / what score she gets.

otherwise it’s £60 a month I keep paying 🤪 (I think) but quite good how you can see what areas they need improvement.

Has your school done Cat4 tests - that’s usually a good indication where she is / what schools would suit

Have a look at elevenplusexams.co.uk - lots of useful info all across the site. The Birmingham forum is here.

Hi there – my daughter sat the Birmingham grammar test a year and a half ago. It was CEM then, but the principles are very similar, and if you are self-preparing, the choice of workbooks is much the same (you just buy the GL ones instead of the CEM ones).

We self-prepared our daughter too. We preferred, and trusted, the CGP books, but we did make sure she did some work from other providers, as it is easy to get used to one style of question and format in terms of the size of font, numbering, style of pictures etc. So, I would suggest using a few other option as well. We had one or two Bond books, and also Schofield & Sims, Letts, Collins.
We didn’t do work every day: maybe 30 minutes, 3-4 times per week – but everyone is different. We felt that was enough. We also didn’t work through every page of every book. If my daughter was finding a section/topic easy, we’d skip some or try to find something harder. If she found a section hard, we’d broaden her experience by offering a variety of material at a similar level. We didn’t worry about timings until about Easter, but we did make sure we went through any questions she got wrong, and we also asked her to put a mark by a question if it was a bit of a guess, so that, even if she got it right, we consolidated.

I don’t know about KEHS as we only tried the state grammar test, but for the state test I shouldn’t worry about others carrying around 11-12 books. Using 10-11 books and getting most right within the time and having a good approach to the questions and good exam technique should be enough. Our daughter passed very easily, and is now at the grammar of her choice, and we didn’t look at 11-12.

Regarding mock tests, I think it’s a little bit early. My daughter did a test in April or May with a small provider, and then she sat two ‘proper’ mocks (100+ kids) in June and August, primarily to get experience of the test conditions. The results from these tests were more helpful than those you have had: we received an overall percentage, plus a percentage for each section and each topic, and also the highest and lowest score for each vs our daughter’s score, and also her ‘position’ amongst those that sat the test that day (both overall and for each section.) This was really reassuring (eg when she had found a section hard and could then see that she wasn’t alone!)

Hi all, Thank you so much for the responses and apologies for the late reply. The answers are reassuring that we are on the right path. I do have some strategy planned, where I prepare the list of materials that my daughter has to go through at the beginning of the week - based on how she gets on with the list, I will prepare the next week's list. For e.g., last week she struggled a bit in Venn diagram related questions, so I added more test that focuses on Graphs and Diagrams for this week.

Thank you for the suggestion reg Atom learning. We do have the subscription. We currently find the Comprehension and the vocabulary bit daunting, where we always find more than one options to be right, and get confused why one is the right answer when the other is not. Guess, this will be fine over time as we keep working on several tests.

@Shopziew How do I purchase mock tests online? Is that to work in home? This option sounds brilliant. Could you guide which one is good to purchase?

@Ilovechoc12 Not sure about Cat4 tests, is it similar to SAT exams?

After trying to stretch her time between creative writing and VR/NVR, we have decided to focus on one thing at a time, which is the grammar exams for us now.

@Squiblet Thank you for the elevenplus forum suggestion, raised a request to become a member, so I can post questions.

Thanks again moms for the guidance, we certainly feel reassured now.

Hi, my daughter struggled a bit with the comprehension side. She found there was one or two answers that would fit the question.
Her tutor would say.... There may be a few answers which could be correct. But you have to answer with the one which you think is most correct. Is there something in the text that sways in the direction of one answer over the other.

One thing to remember is if it's multiple choice (all dd's exams were) ...put an answer to every question. My DD ran out of time so put b for the rest of the answers to give her a fighting chance of a few extra points.

We did a state 11+ that was CEM and I don’t know the arrangements for your school. But for “mocks” what we did was over the summer and weeks before the test in September we used CGP papers that have audio tracks available online that announced the start of each section. My son did these at home and it replicated the type of time pressure which we found half the battle and his scored really improved after a few goes.

www.cgpbooks.co.uk/11-plus-13-plus-books/11/practice-test-papers-for-11-and-13?sort=best_selling&quantity=36&page=1&view=grid&currentFilter=ExamBoard_957&filter_exam%20board=ExamBoard_957

We didn’t do any in person tests but for a nervous Child it could be a good idea - an experience of going to an unfamiliar place so not the first time on the day.

Hi mums
After some advice regarding KEHS and SGGS. My DD scored really well in her grammar exams last year however we are out of catchment for SGGS which she would LOVE to go to - we also got offered a scholarship from KEHS - however DD just doesn'r seem keen on KEHS for some reason - hear heart is sat on SGGS. Any advice from parents whose girls attend either - pros and cons of each school? And which option should I go for? TIA

I think you need to start a new thread asking this.

Aww sorry new to mumsnet - will figure out how to do this thank you