Trinity & Whitgift 10+/11+ exams 2024 entry

[SunshineandRainbowMum]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting a new thread for those with children who are sitting for the 10+ Trinity and Whitgift exams this year.

I've been lurking for years reading through the 10+ and 11+ past threads, silently sharing in the anxiety, pain and joy of those parents that have come before me 😅.

I can't believe that the time is now here for my DS to sit the 10+ exams.

Are there any other parents that would like to jump on board this thread so we can support each other through the next few months?

@expatinmys Atom has some topics for writing. They had some live creative writing lessons this week but no other real resources.
For sample papers, it depends on which level you are applying at. Atom has a large range of 11+ online mock tests. For 10+ it's mainly the Atom mocks so it prepares you for the schools that use Atom for their exam. They only have a few paper tests, all of which are geared towards 11+.

Hey, my son is in Y7 Whitgift and I was super nervous about the creative exam for him also last year as not his strong area (good at maths , VR/NVR)....they had an option to write a descriptive piece or describe an image that was printed for them...he went for the latter which suited him better. Good luck!

We have started with Atom mock papers as well now. Does anyone know if the actual trinity exam will be similar to the mock exams in atom? The children get 20 minutes for math and English and 10 minutes for vr and nvr. Is the exam set in such a way that, for example, the math paper on the website will close in 20 mins similar to atom mock exams? Or is it 60 minutes for all the 4 and the exam website is open for the whole 60 minutes?
I see that atom does not have trinity listed in their mock exams..... Wondering which one of the listed exam comes closest.

Hi @Arav123
Thank you for the tip! Congratulations to your son on getting a place at Whitgift. Is he enjoying it there? Did he also sit the Trinity test last year too?

He loves it. He's settled in and made friends, embracing all the sports on offer. I've found the set up to be very nurturing, he has a good bond with his form tutor who regularly talks to them 121 to ensure they are well and coping with the new and extra responsibility of being at senior school...

That's great to know your son made it. It seems like an excellent school. We are attempting the exam in the middle east as we are based here and not visited the school as we were not back in the UK for the school visit. Are the students grounded types or are there lots of affluent families as in most private schools? The preparation for the exam is quite tough, schools here hardly prepare for any exams. Hows the overall school day, is it packed with activities?

I would say the majority of my sons friends seem fairly grounded, lots of boys with two working parents, obviously a few very affluent but also lots of children on bursaries also, seems a fairly balanced mix.

His days are busy through choice, he does a club (various sports) each day after school before catching the bus home...he also has a sports fixture or training for his main sport every Saturday. The busy day has helped him settle and make friends quickly....

good luck with your preparation, we found Atom really useful for VR, NVR and then lots of algebra practise for maths!

We have been working through the modules on Atom. Does anyone know where we can practice the second computerised section that's Trinity and City of London have? It's called Creative Comprehension (20 minute section) and Puzzles and Problem Solving (15 minute section). Thank you!

We have the same question. So far I found some material on Examberry which is free and it may be close but not too sure. We also bought a sample paper from a website called pretest plus.co.uk but have not attempted the tests yet. It says it's the 10+ trinity sample paper. Apart from that, we are clueless on the second part but if I get any further info, will share.

I was wondering the same regarding the second part of the test. If I find anything I'll share with you all.

When my son did the creative comprehension familiarisation material, he said it was similar to what his tutor gave him for homework eg translating the Greek symbols into English (or something like that). Our tutor has switched over to GL assessment papers as he said its probably closer in content and style to the new adaptive exams.

We've also been using Atom and also covering content in CGP books as City traditionally writes its exams based CGP (or so we've been told). Worth mentioning they have a Puzzles component.....which DS hasn't finished...😅 its beginning to feel very grim now that it's officially November!

We attempted a practice test from a website today (pretest plus) for trinity school 10+. The puzzles section was quite challenging with 5 questions with 2 of them being really difficult that DS could not complete. They were a bit like completing sudoku puzzles but with clues. Has anyone else used the practice papers from this website?
The creative comprehension was questions around a timetable for bus and train journeys. DS had never attempted questions such as these previously, so it was quite challenging. Also It takes a bit of getting used to and I don't know how he would fare in the exam without some practice.
@LoveBlueCheese - I tried looking at the cgp website but did not find any math puzzles however I found some on math salamander website which had puzzles. On the cgp website, are the puzzles under math 11 + or Nvr?
For the 'math problem solving' section which is in the second part of the exam together with the writing, we are using word questions from white rose math which has varying levels of difficulty.
The most unknown component I think is the creative comprehension as it could be any type of reading material. We will probably end up buying the rest of the practice papers from pretest plus website as I have no clue where else to find any sample questions. It'll be an interesting (stressful) few weeks in November preparing for the exam.

@expatinmys the puzzles sections are in the CGP books. They are not specifically maths puzzles. More logic related. Honestly at this stage I'm getting him to look at everything including puzzles and cross words in newspapers although his tendency is still to skip to the sports pages 😂 We've not really looked at White Rose or Salamandar but stuck to Atom/CGP and a bit of Bond for content. At this stage im focusing more on technique so mainly doing Atom and creative writing on paper. As its the first year the exams have gone adaptive Im keeping fingers crossed that the schools are going to assess candidates holistically and also look at the school reference (rather than have a cut off mark and then use school ref to further whittle down numbers)

Thanks for the heads up about pretest plus we will buy the papers too x

DS tried one paper from pretestplus today and the creative comprehension and puzzle section were hard! I hope the actual exams won't be as hard as these.

Hey,

Yes the mock exam timings on Atom are the same timings for the actual Trinity exam.

I was told by the admissions team that it automatically closes after each section has finished and then the children all move on to the next section at the same time.

Just to add to your question @expatinmys , I had a conversation today with the head of admissions at Trinity. She confirmed that for the first 50 minute general computer based assessment, the test automatically stops after each section, so after 20 mins for English and then the children are all told to click on to the next section for the 20 mins Math and then again for the 10 mins NVR.

She also said that it is the same for the next 40 minute computer based assessment, so it will automatically stop after the 30 mins Creative Comprehension section and then they are told to start the 10 mins VR section.

She said for the two written papers, the children are told when their 30 minutes is up for English Creative Writing and to now start their 30 mins Math Problem Solving paper.

She was very reassuring that they want to give the children the best possible chance of success and acknowledged that they are still very young and time management/exam technique is still new to them and so they do give them lots of warnings when time is running out and prompts to move on to the next sections.

She also said that there will be breaks in between the 3 sets of exams e.g. a break after the General Assessment exam and then a break after the Creative Comprehension and VR exam.

She also said that depending on what group they are put into, will depend on what order they sit the exams in so it may not be General Assessment, followed by Creative Comprehension & VR, followed by the two written papers. It may be in a different order.

I hope that helps.

Thanks @SunshineandRainbowMum . Really helpful info.

How's everyone doing? I'm feeling very anxious about the whole thing and trying not to show nerves to DS. I think while it was helpful to try papers from Pretest Plus - their creative comprehension is just way too hard for 9 year olds with questions designed to trip even adults up. My DS ended up crying and he is far from dim. Im worried this has shot his confidence and its not what we want at this stage. I've emailed them and if you'd like more info as to their response drop me a DM.

Hi @LoveBlueCheese ,

Aww I'm sorry to hear that your DS was upset, hopefully it wouldn't have affected his confidence. Maybe give him some practice papers to do in areas that are his strength to boost his confidence back up.

I am feeling very anxious too, my DS has been practicing Atom and has done 2 of the mock tests. He did very well on the Math and VR and ok on the English. He is definitely stronger in Math than English but I do worry that his English may let him down on the day, particularly the written paper. He is very reluctant to do any creative writing practice. I don't want to force him and cause distress, but it is his weakest area and one he definitely needs to practice.

He has not yet tried the Pretest Plus papers but he did give the practice questions a go on the Trinity website and managed to work out the answers.

I have sent you a DM as I would be interested to see what their response was with regards to the papers being too challenging for 9 year olds.

Hi,

How is everyone feeling the day before the Trinity test?

My DS has been very poorly this week and off school and so he hasn't been able to do any revision at all. He is thankfully starting to feel better today and went back to school and he should be ok for the test tomorrow but he is still not 100%.

I am getting quite nervous now as when he has been practicing he has been rushing and making silly mistakes as he is not reading the question properly. I've been talking to him about exam technique but the Trinity exam will be a good indicator as to how well he manages time, not rushing, reading questions properly etc.

Also nervous here!
When do we hear after the exam how they went?

Good luck everyone for today!

Hi @Pollypocket81

I am not sure on the exact date but judging by previous year's they usually send an email out around 2nd week of January regarding the interview stage , so just over a month to wait 😬.

Hey,

How is everyone's DS feeling about the exams?

My DS said that he found the creative comprehension quite challenging. He said there were 12 questions and he was only confident with answering 5 of them and then he did process of elimination for 6 of them and 1 was a complete guess.

I didn't get much else out of him 😕.

Yes, my DS also found creative compression quite difficult. He also mentioned about all being a bit disorganised today.

DS also found the creative comprehension hard but not as hard as the pretestplus sample papers. He said the other sections were easy. It's a waiting game now!