11+ ISEB prep - Atom v Bond Online Plus

[BarqsHasBite]

Hello, looking for views on preparing for the ISEB Common Pre-test please, which DD will be taking in late Sep/early Oct for two target schools.

DS has just done 11+ entrance exams for a school which used Atom as the testing platform, so we also used Atom for the prep.

I've built up a lot of Atom credit (enough to get a free subscription for DD!) which claims it can be tailored for different exams. However, I can see no difference in the types of questions that she and DS were given, whereas the ISEB sample NVR questions do look and 'feel' very different, for example .

So I'm wondering if Atom really cuts it as a tool for preparing for ISEB or if I need to suck up the subscription cost to Bond Online Plus.

Would welcome any views, including on Bond Online Plus / preparing for ISEB in general. I know it offers a free 7 day trial.

Thank you!

Since you’ve got enough free credit for Atom then why not use both? Try the Bond trial and if you don’t find it helpful then cancel. There’s nothing else you can spend the Atom credit on.

We found Atom better than Bond / Century just because on the Century tests, it only gave you a score & didn’t tell which questions were wrong to be able to review and learn from your mistakes. A crucial flaw!
We did a month of Century anyway just to get some exposure to different types of questions. I think a big part of preparation is just being familiar with the sort of question that may come up.

Neither, to be honest. Bond unhelpfully doesn’t give answers, Atom isn’t especially challenging. Or maybe we didn’t use it properly.

That’s right, Atom doesn’t challenge you unless you take practice tests for year 6. Even their mock exams don’t have much of an edge. The best way to prepare is to use the CGP, Bond, and S&S books.

Definite preference for Atom over Bond or Century. They’re all over-priced, and while Atom has changed (not for the better), it still provides the best ISEB pre-test prep. As NLDD says, Atom is the only one that lets you look deeper into wrong answers. Would disagree with durness and Suress that Atom isn’t especially challenging. It’s coverage is plenty strong enough to be very well placed for the pre-test, but DC may need to practise for longer on the islands to progress to harder material.
But Atom does have its flaws. Don’t get spooked by lower mock ISEB than actual known CAT scores - their ISEB SAS algorithm is heavily skewed and misleading, possibly due to volume of strongly able children repeating tests giving a higher than reality national average and perhaps lower number of less-driven DCs who frankly don’t care about doing mock tests in any volume, if at all. Also some who use Atom will ultimately sit 11+ only and so their high scores won’t inflate the average in real ISEB pretest results. Of more concern is Atom’s question accuracy. Quite often, especially in NVR, there are multiple correct answers and there are times (in maths and english) where Atom actually have the wrong answers. But that’s OK if DCs are confident in their knowledge. They’ll still get the benefit of the question and the actual ISEB shouldn’t have ambiguous answer options. Also, the school comparison tool on Atom seems pointless as the ability range rarely changes between highly selective or SEN schools.

You may try this: https://practicepapers.net/. This site progressively provides challenging questions, most importantly it is free. It doesn't have mock tests though.

I think Atom is the market leader, but still not a full package. In an ideal world where money were no object, atom in combination with a tutor would be the way to go. Someone who can talk through the exam and provide stretch and challenge simultaenously.

For those who would like to try atom learning here is a code worth £30

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