CEM 11+ Verbal Reasoning Exam

CEM 11+ Verbal Reasoning Exam
 

CEM stands for the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring and is based in the School for Education in University of Durham. Over the last number of years, a large number of schools and regions have chosen to use the CEM 11+ Exam. CEM have stated that their exam has been written in an effort to prevent children from being tutored for an exam that should test their innate ability and is “tutor-proof.” “Teaching to the test” or “spotting questions” should not be possible. CEM do not publish practice tests or books for purchase by the public. Interestingly in many areas that have chosen the CEM 11+ the amount of private tutoring appears to have increased quite dramatically.
 

The CEM 11+ exam covers verbal reasoning often combined with English questions. This allows the test to align more closely with the National Curriculum at KS2, including English comprehension. The verbal reasoning component contains many of the verbal reasoning questions that have been used for many years but how the question is presented to students may differ from previous 11+ exams.

How the CEM 11+ exam is presented depends on the school or region and may be in standard format, multiple choice, or a combination of both.
 

To succeed in the verbal reasoning section a pupil requires a high level of English ability in comprehension, vocabulary, spelling and many other English skills.
 

CEM exam can change without notice and different verbal reasoning and English questions could be included. Thorough preparation on core English skills is the best advice. Wider preparation using a range of practice material is essential.

While the CEM 11+ Verbal Reasoning book on this page is specifically written for this exam our site also offers additional practice in Verbal Reasoning with a range of structured books.
 

Below are some examples of the types of CEM 11+ Verbal Reasoning question that a pupil may be faced with.
 

Comprehension

Comprehension questions of the type of that a child would be doing as part of his daily school work.

CLOZE vocabulary test ( A cloze test/question is where a child is asked to “fill in the blanks” in a passage or sentence – common in many aspects of school work)
 

The question may require the pupil to insert missing letters or complete words. It may also ask for synonyms or antonyms or indeed any other aspect of English such as spelling mistakes, insert present/past/future tenses or correct common mistakes made when using English.
 

Another type of CEM 11+ Verbal Reasoning question is one based on Jumbled or shuffled sentences where the words in sentences are mixed up. Pupils could be asked to order them correctly or to identify one word which doesn’t belong in the sentence. This question type may be extended to ask children to re-order jumbled paragraphs.
 

Other verbal reasoning questions may resemble the type of Verbal Reasoning questions that have been in use for many years – though presented in a different manner. Using a variety of texts and question types allows children to prepare well and by covering more question types it makes the actual CEM 11+ exam seem less daunting.

 
 

CEM Regions

Berkshire, Bexley, Birmingham, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wolverhampton.

Mixture of GL and CEM: Devon, Essex, Hertfordshire, Trafford, Wiltshire, Wirral, Yorkshire.

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NB: Please note that these lists were correct at the time of publication. Exam boards used by schools or regions can and do change, so please check with each grammar school that you are applying to in order to confirm what exam board it uses.