Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Aptitude test

[Byebyefattum]

Hello, I’m trying to find out more about the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Aptitude test offered by William Hulme Grammar as an admissions selection tool.

does anyone know what sort of things they ask/ test for/ look for please?

do you mean the modern languages aptitude test?

yup

I don’t know about that aptitude test specifically.

But often in these sorts of tests they will use a completely made up language, so that you can’t get an advantage by knowing it.

They want to see if you can pick out grammatical rules from the data they have given you, and then apply it to new words.

So they might for example tell you that the word “blib” means dog and the word “blob” means dogs. Then tell you that the word for cats is “spot” and ask you what the word for cat might be, that sort of thing.

Our school uses a shape pattern spotting test like this:

non-verbal-reasoning-test-1-questions.pdf (mathcentre.ac.uk)

Oh god what a ridiculous sounding test

I say this as someone who speaks 3 MFL

I get what they're trying to do but

You can prepare for it online with practice questions.

Hundreds of years ago we had to take a Swedish test at school to determine whether we were able to study an additional MFL or had to stick with French. As a PP has said it was all about being able to see patterns in words and endings, grammar rules and recognising where words may have the same root.

If you Google British Linguistic Olympiad they also have some practice papers in both real and made up languages that might be helpful.

DD did this at 11+ for a London school and they taught them some basic Welsh and then did simple listening and reading comprehensions

Reported

Why is it ridiculous? I teach 3 MFL and I don't think it's a ridiculous test (assuming you feel the need to test for MFL aptitude). It's a reasonably well-known and well-established way of doing it. Like a language puzzle. They're quite fun! And as has been pointed out, it's a good way of ensuring that nobody will have an unfair advantage.