Every year we get dozens of enquiries from parents asking for help with entrance exams and, despite the 11 Plus having been around for quite some time, there is often confusion over the format of the tests and, equally importantly, the threshold for selection.
Although the format can vary quite greatly, the entrance exams tend to cover maths, English, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Of course, the school that is being applied to will confirm exactly which of these will be tested, as well as the duration of the tests.
It’s important to know what is included and you will be provided with a rough guide to what they will be tested on (although they often won’t give too much away!), as well as the exam board that they follow. Although they all roughly cover the same, they may differ in some ways, for example, some schools will test students on all of the above areas but may have comprehension and grammar included in the English paper, whereas other schools will have a writing task.
Demand for places is higher for certain schools (such as Leicester Grammar and Oakham School) or in certain areas, so it isn’t always possible to forecast the threshold that would lead to acceptance at the school; we always say that we expect 60% as a minimum on every paper being sat but, if competition for a place is extremely fierce and many pupils have applied, this may be much higher.
It goes without saying that 11 Plus exams require preparation. Students may never have come across verbal or non-verbal reasoning before, yet, with some time spent having this explained to them, they could sail through such questions. Being entitled to Pupil Premium means that most students who decide to apply have support and coaching to varying extents, so failure to enlist help with preparation will simply mean that a child is put at a disadvantage compared to fellow applicants.
At INICIO, we can help to prepare your child for their entrance exams. We begin with an assessment to get them used to the layout and format of the papers that they will see when they take their exams and this allows us to create a list of all of the topics that they struggle with. Many parents prefer to arrange assessments in all aspects of the exams and then focus on one or two (or all) of them with weekly sessions in each.
Exam technique is one of the key areas that we find that students need help with, so we factor this into our sessions, covering the subject content as well as guiding them through how to apply this to the exam-style questions. Students may often have the basic knowledge of a specific topic but are unsure how to approach the more wordy, problem solving-style questions. That’s where we can really help :)