Bond verbal/ non-verbal books for years before 11+

[squashpie]

Apols: I've already cross posted this in primary education because I'm not sure where it "fits"!

Has anyone used the Bond books for verbal/ non-verbal years before the 11+ exams, ie the 6/7, 8/9, etc books? I didn't know whether it would be good to begin using them occasionally, introducing them, as is suggested, as "quiz books" (my DS loves the Usborne puzzlebooks) to get him used to the formats so he is not overwhelmed/ intimidated by them later on, or whether he would just get fed up with them by the time he was approaching the 11+. I stress, I'm not intending to do them everyday, just as an occasional fun thing to do, like we do the Usborne puzzle books. Any experience gratefully received!

Hello. DD1 took the 11plus/entrance exam in January for a selective independent school.

I bought some Bond mock papers for her to try 4 weeks before the exam. We looked at the first one together and then she tried a couple on her own, we went through the mistakes together at the end. Then we did a couple of timed ones.

To be honest my philosophy was not to overdo it. She needed to try some papers as she had never done anything like the non-verbal reasoning before and timing was new too. Some of her peers were doing them at least a year before the exams but this really is not necessary, better to know what to expect but be fresh too.

Anyway, she passed. My advice would be , relax , do not overdo it and no pressure.

Hope that helps!

DS2 used to love the non-verbal reasoning ones as quizzes.

My DS1 is in Yr 1. I just saw that they did these books for the age 6/7, 7.8 etc age groups and wondered if they were a good idea or if it would be overkill at this young age?

Soup Dragon - at what age did your child begin doing them? Your DC sounds like mine! I know of a friend who used them to get her DS into an indie from 7+ but we'll be staying in the state sector at least until secondary and I just thought these might be stimulating once in a while and won't make the tests more intimidating when he's older. What do you think?

Um... It must have been last year so Y3 or the tail end of Y2. He didn't like the verbal reasoning ones so much though

DS1 has just sat entrance exams for private and grammar and there wasn't an non-verbal reasoning in them at all so I don't see what value they have outside enjoyment (although this may not be the case in all counties/boroughs)

thanks Soupdragon - in our area, all the local state and private - at 11+ - do verbal, non-verbal, maths and english, so it's definitely going to come up.

Perhaps I'll leave it til next year anyway, til he's got more of an idea about vocab and spellings etc.

Squashpie, the Bond books are fun if you have a child that likes puzzles.

BUT if your child is going to do the 11 plus, you need to find out what format the exam is in and do sample papers in that format. Many schools do NFER verbal reasoning, which has 21 question types. Bond verbal reasoning is different. Some of the question types are the same and some are different to NFER.

With a child as young as yours, I would say that a better building block for the 11 plus VR was to get some Usborne spotter's guides and go out on walks using them. Then your DS will know the odd one in oak, sycamore, spruce, rowan, or in maltese, cairn, skye, west highland, springer.

I would also deal with Maths and English before worrying about VR and NVR.

I answered on the other thread.

I just realised we used NFER Nelson not Bond. Don't suppose that matters to anyone else! Not sure how different they are but the Nfer Nelson were recommended by the schools here.

I'd not heard of the Usborne spotters guides. Think he'd love those. Yes, meant to check up about which exam board - nfer or otherwise. I think I sort of thought that anything would be good to start with because, presumably (though I may be talking nonsense ) some types of verbal/non-verbal are universal, regardless of the exam board, and that some concentrate or include other techniques such as nets, which some boards don't include?