11+ Information

Advice for the 11+ Examination and Common Entrance Exams.

11+ Exams:

• Non-Verbal Reasoning (NVR) and Verbal Reasoning (VR)
• English, the students are required to take an exam in both creative writing (not all schools) and comprehension.
• Grammar
• Maths, papers following the 11+ syllabus including a general paper.

Maths:

Most schools have prepared the girls for the 11+ syllabus but what sometimes surprises candidates is the extent to which they have to put their knowledge into action by working out word problems and applied maths. They need to be aware that they will not necessarily get pages of formal arithmetic and must be ready to ‘have a go’ at questions to which there does not appear to be an obvious answer. Girls must also show their workings as it is quite possible to get at least 50% by demonstrating how you approached the problem even if the actual answer is incorrect.

Reasoning:

The best preparation is to subscribe to an online service ATOM Learning, Bofa11+ is helpful and CGP books online. Practicing consistently a year before is best! Many English 11plus and some grammar school exam papers are set by GL Assessment (formally Nfer Nelson) and these will take the form of either a standard or multiple-choice format. Some schools that set their own exams but they will usually be broadly based on the above topic list.

Unlike VR and NVR, English is taught as part of the school curriculum and therefore your child should be familiar with many of the topics covered in the 11 Plus English exams. However, some children require more support than others when preparing for 11+ English.

​

Comprehension:
A comprehension exercise might ask questions based on a long or short passage or some lines from an advert.

Strategies to apply:

1. Read through the passage carefully twice.

2. Read through the passage again to find clues in the text and highlight possible answers the questions.

3. Read the questions through but write nothing at this stage.

4. Start answering the questions by referring back to the passage.

5. Use the marks available to work out the length of your answer to gain full marks for a question.

Sentence Structure:
Ensure that you are able to write and identify the tense that is used with verbs and especially check that you know how to use ‘helping’ or auxiliary verbs (e.g. I was painting a picture).

​

Creative writing:
Writing is likely to be assessed by looking at the composition & style, grammar, punctuation, spellings, sentence structures, and vocabulary. It is essential to make a plan and allow sufficient time to check the work at the end. To help you prepare: practise writing in different styles e.g. to persuade, narrate, explain, describe etc. and practise story titles which tend to re-occur in 11+ exams.

Spelling:
Learn how to spell some commonly misspelt words e.g. practise/practice, advice/advise, affect/effect. Learn the spellings and meanings of commonly used homophones and learn the basic spelling rules for making words plural, adding a prefix and suffix, words.

in addition, some of the more advanced types e.g. colons, semi-colons, brackets, hyphens, dashes. Practise punctuating sentence and paragraphs without any existing punctuation and also try to identify punctuation errors and omissions in other practice passages.

Grammar:
In English, correct grammar is needed to structure sentences in order to communicate clearly and effectively. There are grammar rules to learn, most of which you would have studied in school, such as the use of phrases and clauses.

​

Interviews:

Most schools require the candidate to attend an interview

Interview Stages:

1. General/ personal interview question

2. Logic/ puzzles/ mental arithmetic

3. Poetry analysis

4. Current affairs QA (exams results etc)

Mrs Theo’s Top Tips:

· SMILE

· Be polite /Good manors

· Body language

· Make eye contact

· Be natural

· Dress appropriately (school uniform is best) Look SMART

· Take something into the interview that gives you a chance to demonstrate your interests.

· Do not over prepare

· Nerves are GOOD

· Research the school – have some background knowledge

Remember the interview starts as soon as you walk through the door.

The key is to prepare for common questions ( see below for most frequent questions asked) Do not attend any coaching or over rehearse your answers.

11+ Girls

There are many schools both day and boarding that are taking girls at 11+ and there are schools to suit all abilities. There are also many schools that are more academic than others but that does not necessarily make them the ‘best’ school.

It is really important to visit the schools, talk to the Head Teachers and the students before deciding the best school for your daughter will thrive, rather than worrying about any kind of perceived prestige by attending one or other school.

Please do not over work or over tutor your daughter. The exams go on for what seems like several weeks and the girls get very tired and emotional. They need a lot of support and encouragement at this stage.

11+ Pre-tests /11+ boys

For boys who are at prep schools, they take Common Entrance exams in Year 8 and move to upper or “public” schools in Year 9 when they are 13/14 years old age.

Most schools require the boys to take a ‘pre-test’ to determine whether they will be able to put that school down as their choice for Common Entrance – (for which you can only nominate one school) These pre-tests take place usually in Year 6.