How to prepare for the11+ Exam
How do you prepare for the 11plus exam?
Throughout the country there are many different forms of grammar school selection tests and 11+ exams and so it is important that as you prepare your child for for this very important exam that you must find out exactly what type of test or tests your child will sit.
These are the most common type of questions that are set:-
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Verbal Reasoning
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Non Verbal reasoning
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English
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Mathematics
The elevenplus exam that they will be asked to take could well be a combination of all the above!
Find out all that you can about the exam in your area and then prepare accordingly. This preparation will improve a child's understanding of what is required for the exam but parental support and encouragement is crucial to their child's self-confidence and their attitude to not only 11+ preparation but to all areas of their school work.
Many Local Authorities provide familiarisation tests for the school pupils to complete either in school or at home. After these two or three practice papers state schools are often discouraged from providing any additional practice yet many private or independent schools do provide additional elevenplus practice papers and this will give these children an advantage when they come to sit the exam.
There are many ways in which the interested parent can help their child to prepare for the eleven plus exams.
It is unlikely that this additional work can be done in two or three weeks before the exam is due to be taken but it will require a lot of time and effort from both parent and child.
Commercial Practice Papers
There are many versions of these on the market, available from good bookshops and on the Internet. Look for a publisher that employs experienced teachers at Key Stage Two level, as these books will reflect the knowledge that the author has gained in the classroom. The content should also be relevant to the eleven plus test that your child will actually sit. Practicing a variety of question types, in both traditional or standard format, will help all children to become more confident in their own ability and will introduce them to a wide range of question types that are of varying difficulty.
Standard format:- this is where your child writes their answer in a space on the page.
Multiple choice format:- this is where your child selects from a number of given answers or letters below the answers. They may have to mark their answers on a separate answer sheet. This format allows for marking by optical readers.
Epapers for Immediate Use
This a developing market and one which many parents avail of. Epapers, as they have become known, allow parents to download a practice paper at short notice without having to wait for a book to arrive in the post! A number of such tests to download can be found on this site.
Private Tutors
Many parents send their child to private tutors either for one to one or small group tuition. In preparing your child for his or her 11+ exams you must be certain that the person that you entrust your child to is honest. trustworthy and does not present any threat to your child's safety and that you will get value for money. Sitting in a group of 15 or 20 pupils is not much different from being in a school classroom and personal attention to your child may be limited. An interested and concerned parent can often carry out this preparation on their own in the comfort of their own home.
However attending a good tutor will usually be very beneficial for your child. Recommendations from friends and family can be a useful way to link to a good tutor.
Online 11+ sites
Online sites provide unlimited access, for a monthly/yearly subscription, to a bank of 11+ questions. Many of these sites are "test" sites that do not offer any feedback to children after they have attempted a question, whilst others are based on "multiple choice" answer systems. Sites such as these may only encourage a child to guess an answer rather than attempt to work out the answer.
A quality site will provide relevant feedback and encouragement that improves your child's skill level across all elevenplus subjects.
We recommend www.onlineelevenplusexams.co.uk as this site provides feedback only if the pupil attempts the question. This system helps prevent your child from guessing the answer and encourages your child to work out the correct answer.
Learning Together provides practice material in:-
** This information is provided for guidance only and while the content is, to the best of our knowledge, accurate we cannot be held in any way responsible for any errors or omissions that it may contain. Please contact your LA or chosen grammar school for all admission and elevenplus exam queries.**