New 11+ Topics Information And Materials To Help

Although nothing is certain, some skills and topics seem to come up regularly. Here is an overview of these areas and what you could do to help you son or daughter.

NVR: (about 25% of total) Non-verbal Reasoning. This area is thought to be perhaps the easiest area for many pupils to pick up marks if they practise. There are about 4 main areas comprising 10 different types of question. The CAT tests last section covers about 3 of these and may give an idea of your child's strengths. I will do another CAT test soon. Revision and Practice Emphasis: Reinforce Maths skills in reflection, rotation, nets of 3d shapes, angles. All are essential. Find an easy Bond (or similar) book and start off, building up skills and familiarity) Use 3d blocks, paper folding, tangrams, any spatial type puzzles etc to reinforce it all.

Maths: (about 25% of total) Some VR types help this (e.g. type 23, 24,) Straightforward '+ - x ÷ and fraction' calculations can be asked although more likely to be long wordy question involving several calculations to come to answers. Logic practice (VR type 23, 30, 31) will help too. Interpreting timetables and reading 'tables' of data often occurs. Familiarity with 'time' based work is also likely to be needed. Quick 'calculations' of simple numbers (4x14, 8x13, 11x20, 108÷9, 4x250) in the head is needed to speed up responses. Careful reading and interpreting of questions is needed. Average scores in some tests seem to be very low (under 30%) for this part of the test. Revision and Practice Emphasis: Multiples need to be secure and move onto mental 2 digit mental work. Verbal and written practise. Longer word questions. Logic type questions. See VR type 23, 30, 31 for examples of logic types. (Susan Daughtrey book)

VR: (about 25% of total) Not all the usual types are covered, mostly the word types (e.g. type 2, 7, 10,11, 12, ) and also maths number types, and longer logic type questions (type 33, 30). Several types of questions in the VR books could be useful for revising Maths and English areas too (see below) Work and Practice Emphasis: Any Verbal Reasoning Books. CGP etc. See above for links.

English: (about 25% of total) Cloze type questions, (like VR type 18, 20 sentences with words or letters missing) are likely to be included. Some hard words crop up in the test. Word lists will help. Recognition more important than spelling. Sometimes grammar/spell check questions included but less frequent. Comprehension type work: Pupils will need to be able to read a text (usually 1 ish page but sometimes shorter sections) quickly and answer questions, often in the form of multiple choice answers. Questions can be about the meaning of words, or asking for synonyms and antonyms. (sometimes 24 questions in about 8 minutes.. these are generally hard and average marks are often around 50%, but more than that is needed for a pass). Work and Practice Emphasis: Various word lists, harder words. Omit word (or letters) and see if child can fill it. Reading Speed. Pupil read Texts and you ask questions. No long writing task is carried out.

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of having a regular routine/plan to backup tutoring. A little a day is better than a lot just once a week. Verbal informal games as well as more formal learning. Whatever happens though I should reinforce that any work is likely to have a good effect on the level of your child's schoolwork in general even if things don't pan out the 'Grammar School' way.