There is no substitute

Is statistics are to be believed, there was a 40% increase in the number of children sitting the Grammar School Entrance exam in Birmingham this year (November 2011 exam). The Sunday Times had a story in January of “Super tutors” who charge £1000 per day for 11Plus preparation!  I am sure it is a bit of exaggeration but there must be some truth in there. With the extreme competition and considering what’s at stake, you can’t blame the parents for trying to get the best for their children. We spend hours and days slavishly with the children, helping them prepare, but often miss out one very important aspect – The exam itself.

Most children who are appearing for the exam have never probably sat a competitive exam in their lives. Add to this the pressure which has been building for at least a year. The stories of children breaking down in tears on seeing the thousands of children on the day of the exam are not myths. It is therefore important that preparation should include ways to cope with the exam nerve. This is why there is no substitute for mock exams.

Mock exams are usually run by the schools (mostly independent) or tutor for their students. This is not ideal as the idea is to get the child out of their “known environment and comfort zone” and sit with complete strangers to do the exam. So sitting in your own class room with your friends does not really help. The recommendation therefore is to use third-party providers who provide a true exam like setting. This also helps to highlight aspects of exam conditions that may cause your child to feel uneasy and stressed. Talk to the exam invigilator before the exam asking them to keep an eye out for your child so you can get even better feedback (after all you are paying for this!). The mock exams help build confidence. In every case we have seen for far, children increase their marks by at least 15% in the second mock test. Time keeping and answering techniques (attempt easy first or the hard ones?) also come into play here which you just cannot test for in the comfort of your own home or tutor’s class. The feedback includes the ranking in the peer group. Although this may be slightly misleading as the real exam scores are normalised for age, it does give you an idea where your child stands in the group and how much more ground you have to cover. It also gives you an idea of which subjects to concentrate on.

In short – there is no substitute for the mock exam, except perhaps the real exam!

The 11+ Race starts now !

Would like to get your child into a decent school? Its a jungle out there ! and unless you start now and plan your strategy, you will either have to be very lucky or very rich. If your child goes to a primary school, you would have much dodging and gloating at the school gates (Look out for Year 6 parents!). The truly amazing 11 plus showdown is entering its denouement as most letters head out from grammar schools and private schools to convey whose progeny has won the race - the great 11 plus race.

This coming year, it really is more brutal than in the past. Recession has driven more middle-class parents towards few remaining grammar schools. Military strategies for preparing for the 11-plus race include coaching, styling, the establishing of fake hobbies, playing obscure musical instruments, rehearsing interview techniques and in many cases taking fake exams in big halls. I have seen children as yound as year 3 being coached for the 11+ !. Many schools now boast a ten-to-one ratio of applicants to places. Plus the more competitive the entry process, the higher are the 'bragging rights'. Some parents compare them to Oxbridge! It is now common for Independent schools to interview the 10 year olds. Can you imagine your 10 year old being interviewd by two men in tweedy jackets ? asking her whats the difference between courage and foolishness, then staring out  of the window while she struggled to react. Schools would counter that at a time of coaching, merely a really left-field question can locate a child’s true self.

That’s precisely what worries most parents. The tortuous process commences with registration. Private schools collect a typical fee of approximately £100. (Take into consideration most parents will sign up for four or five schools.) It is not unusual to have the form asking for detailed achievements ! For a 10 year old ? The form asks for 'hobbies' but be aware that this does not have to be a 'just a hobby'. It has be a passion. Sorry, make that obsession - which the child needs to know all about. I know parents who put the hobby down as Astronomy but then went to  buy books, a telescope and discuss everthing the time prior to the interview. The middle class parents sure know how to make their children’s lives hell across the event. ‘Two years of Saturday mornings’ appears to be an 11-plus catchphrase. Even some expensive private preparatory schools now advise parents to engage home tutors.

At state primaries it is currently accepted wisdom that most but the genius kids of teachers need coaching to get into a grammar or perhaps a competitive private school. And in many cases the 11-plus coaches are selective - they’ll accept just the most promising pupils to allow them to claim a 100 % rate of success for grammar schools. Although not too many parents admit to coaching it is a common practice. Beware that parents at the school gates will deny it, not to mention share recommendations. Like! Mothers who’ve been friends for a long time start lying to one another, plus some are on no-speaking terms now: they’re too stressed. The exams can be arduous. Each school can have upto four papers: maths, English, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning - everyone of a good hour’s duration. So a ten-year-old whose parents have applied to four private schools might face 16 hours  of exams.

They won’t necessarily be that formulaic, either - canny schools have started commissioning their own personal papers. However, you can get ready for the scary seating arrangements. Then come the "practice exams". These "mock exams" are to allow the child to experience what it would be like in an exam hall along with other children.There is a good reason for this as the sight of 250 rival candidates sitting in alphabetic rows and being barked at using a megaphone can make any child burst into tears! (My son who has just finished his 11+ tells me that the child sat behind him in the exam burst into spontaneous tears and started crying uncontrollably). There is also the question of what the child should wear. Many schools interview the mother and father, too, meaning they need to decide not merely exactly what the child should wear, but what they’re planning to wear. Most prep schools advise their students to wear the School uniform (Lookout for all the house captain badges !!).

Even when the letters come, it won’t be over; appeals (usually rows about catchment areas) will commence. It is often said that ‘It’s parents who create the stress. And the cause of it is unrealistic expectations. But can you really blame them?

http://www.11PlusDIY.co.uk

Are Girls really better than Boys?

Do girl’s schools score better than boy’s schools in exams? Or is this just hearsay?  Perhaps mixed schools perform just as well as boys and girls only?  -

Hypothesis 

We have heard it said that ‘students at girl’s school are more likely to score higher marks than those students at a boy’s only school in exams’?   Here at www.11plusDIY.co.uk, we are perfectly placed to answer this question.  As part of the website www.11plusDIY.co.uk we maintain nationwide performance figures for students who are revising for the grammar school ‘11 Plus’ or similar school entrance exams.

Methodology
To prove (or disprove) whether students studying at girls schools score better than their male counterparts in a test situation, we have taken a sample of nearly 500,000 questions answered by 11PLUSDIY students nationwide in the last three months (September – December 2010) and analysed the results on a girl, boy and mixed school basis.  

Results - 11 plus Students – By School Type
The Top Ten Schools
The findings of our study show that in the www.11PLUSDIY.co.uk top ten performing schools, 5 are mixed and 5 are girl’s only schools.  Interestingly we have no boy’s only schools in the top ten – See Table 1.
Table 1 – Top Ten

Rank Average Score % School  
1 90.32% Barton Court Grammar School, Canterbury (mixed)  
2 84.97% Colchester County High School for Girls, Colchester (girls)  
3 84.22% Slough Grammar School, Slough (mixed)  
4 83.02% Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls, Sutton Coldfield (girls)  
5 82.79% Stretford Grammar School, Stretford (mixed)  
6 82.79% Queen Mary's High School, Walsall (girls)  
7 82.59% Tiffin Girls' School, Kingston upon Thames (girls)  
8 82.47% King Edward VI Five Ways School, Bartley Green (mixed)  
9 81.67% Herschel Grammar School, Slough (mixed)  
10 81.38% Woodford County High School, Woodford Green (girls)

The Top Fifty Schools
If we stretch this analysis to our top fifty schools, the findings of our study show that there are now 20 which cater only for boys, 17 for only girls and 13 which are mixed.

This maybe evidence that the boys are not as far behind as first thought.
If we examine these results in more detail, the average score for boys, girls and mixed school students on www.11plusdiy.co.uk tests shows that it’s the mixed students who on average score the highest, with an average mark of 79.81%.  This average is just in front of the girl’s only schools 79.19%, with the boys lagging behind at 74.93% - See Table 2.

Table 2 – Type of Schools (Average - Percentage of Correct Question answers)


Type of School Avg %  
Mixed 79.81%  
Girls only 79.19%  
Boys only 74.93%

Conclusion

From a sample of approximately 500,000 questions on our top fifty performing grammar schools on the www.11plusdiy.co.uk system, we have concluded that students who apply for mixed schools score on average, slightly better than those who apply for a girl’s only schools. But both mixed and girl’s schools perform on average 4 – 5 % better than those who are applying for a boy’s only school.

If you are a parent of a boy, who is seeking one of those sought after grammar school places, then you have an interesting dilemma, do you apply for a Boys School or Mixed? 

We are going to be keeping an eye on these trends throughout 2011, so come back and see if our conclusions change over time.

The Great North South Divide

In 2004, a Sheffield University study suggested

·         “The north-south divide is getting wider”, and that  

·         People living in the south are likely to be better educated and earn more money than their northern counterparts”

The Great North South divide was brought to our attention again last year when the Joint Council for Qualifications showed that children living in the south east are around 40 per cent more likely to gain A’s in their GCSEs than those living in the north east of England.
So is it really true that the divide still exists in the 21st Century?

Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that students in the south and south east are more likely to be better educated than students in the north and other parts of the country? 
Here at www.11plusDIY.co.uk, we are perfectly placed to answer this question.  As part of the website www.11plusDIY.co.uk we maintain nationwide performance figures for students who are revising for the grammar school ‘11 Plus’ or similar school entrance exams. 


Methodology
To prove (or disprove) whether children in London or the South East score higher than their northern counterparts, we have taken a sample of over 500,000 questions answered by 11PLUSDIY students nationwide in the last three months (September – December 2010) and analysed the results on a school by school, local and regional basis.   


11 Plus Students – Regionally
The findings of our study show that students from London and the South East do on average score the highest countrywide percentage of correct marks on www.11PLUSDIY.co.uk tests – See Table 1.


Table 1 - Regional Average - Percentage of Correct Question answers  

Region	Avg % *
London	77.23%
South East	77.00%
West Midlands	76.19%
East Midlands	74.04%
North	73.15%
North West	72.84%
East	69.03%

According to figures we have collected and analysed, students from London correctly answer 77.23% of the questions they are asked (on www.11plusdiy.co.uk).  Students from the South East come second answering 77.00% of their questions correctly. As students move away from London and the South East, their scores reduce by up to 7-8%, which is consistent with the findings of the 2004 and 2010 studies.


Sub-Regions
If we look further into our results, we can see that the results are not as straight-forward, in that there are boroughs in London which do not perform as well as others; and likewise there are sub-regions outside London which performed very well on our analysis – See Table 2.


Most noticeably Birmingham, the West Midlands and Trafford score very well in our anlaysis, but even so not as well as the better performing South East suburbs. From our analysis the top five performing sub-regions/boroughs are in the South East, and particularly noticeable is Kingston who were the only sub-region to average over 80 per cent correct answers in the www.11plusdiy.co.uk tests that were completed.

Table 2 – Sub-Regional Average - Percentage of Correct Question answers

Sub Region	Avg % *
Kingston	81.87%
Redbridge	79.51%
Kent	79.38%
Enfield	79.27%
Slough	78.91%
Barnet	76.86%
Birmingham	76.74%
Walsall	76.09%
Sutton (Birm)	75.66%
Berkshire	74.68%
Wolverhampton	74.52%
Trafford	74.40%
Warwickshire	74.04%
Halifax	73.15%
Colchester	72.58%
Buckinghamshire	72.44%
Chelmsford	71.95%
Wirral	71.15%
Bromley	70.60%
Sutton (L)	69.37%
Surrey	67.57%
Southend	63.97%

* Table 2 shows only the sub-regions/boroughs that have completed what we believe to be a statistically relevant sample.

Conclusion

From our sample of approximately 500,000 questions, we conclude that students in London and the South East do perform on average better than students from elsewhere in the country on www.11plusdiy.co.uk tests.

We are going to be keeping an eye on these trends throughout 2011, so come back and see if our conclusions change over time.

Please also keep an eye out for the following blogs in the coming weeks:

·         11PLUSDIY – Performance Reporting 2 - The Great Sex Divide

·         11PLUSDIY – Performance Reporting 3 – The Great Practice Divide

·         11PLUSDIY – Performance Reporting 4 – The Great School Divide

For parents starting the 11+ journey, a big question is “How do I start my child with verbal reasoning”. This is a tough question because by their very definition, the VR questions are designed to be “non-teachable”.

There is no part of the school syllabus (independent or state schools alike) which targets VR specifically. The first thing to remember is that VR is heavily based on Mathematics and English. So a good grounding on quick mental mathematics and word vocabulary is very essential.

Next look at the types of VR questions here (Click Here). Remember there are the standard VR types and there are some additional types as well (Click Here). You may be tempted to go only for the ones which are likely to appear in your chosen school exam. But in my opinion this is a very dangerous strategy. There is no guarantee on the types of questions likely to appear in the exams. So covering every angle is not only the best insurance, but also is good for “brain training”.

Once you have seen and are conversant with all the VR types, select a few of them at a time. You can use the 11PlusDIY introduction samples for each type available [Click Here]. Sit with the child and introduce one VR question type at a time. I would recommend doing this even if you have a tutor who is going to cover the entire syllabus. Once you have introduced the child to each question type, and the child is familiar with all of them do not dive straight in with question papers! Most likely the scores are going to be low and you will get stresses while the child gets discouraged!

All VR questions can be grouped into basically 4 types:

• CODES : VR Type L, C, N and U
• MATHEMATICS:  VR Type G,P,K,I
• WORDS :  VR Type R, O, F, E, J, A , Q
• VOCABULARY : VR Type H,D,B,M,S

Start by selecting questions by groups and progressing to this intermediate stage before taking on the full test. 11PlusDIY has an excellent set of full exam style worksheets grouped by these types. These worksheets are excellent for introduction as well as revision.

Motivation and aspirations

I was at the Open Day for a much sought after Grammar Schools in the midlands recently. As all Open days are, this one was no different and the weather notwithstanding, the school was filled to the brim with anxious parent clutching their children with one hand and the school prospectus in the other. The highlight of the evening was supposed to be a presentation by the school headmaster in the large and spacious auditorium.

The Headmaster was obviously a man with many years of experience and started the presentation with a light joke or two before going into the details of the school and its pedigree. All seemed to be going well and as expected till the presentation reached the section about admission details. I might be missing a few words here, but what the headmaster said went something like:

“We encourage you to avoid tutors and coaching for the 11 plus exams at all costs. If your child has to be tutored to pass the 11+ exam, then this is not the school for you.”

The headmaster’s argument was that if your child required extra tuitions to pass the 11+, they would not be able to keep up with the stress and standards of work at the school. The Headmaster called Tutors a “recipe for failure at this school”.

This was certainly not what I was expecting. I violently disagree with the Headmaster. My statement is based on two things I have learnt while spending many years in formal education including 11 years at the University (MSc, PhD and MBA):

• ·         It is all about “motivation and aspiration”: The kind of children who are motivated enough to aspire to get to this school, are also the kind of children who will put in that “extra bit” to make up for any lack of natural abilities. All children are not super intelligent or child-prodigies, but those who are motivate and aspire to achieve, put in the effort required to make up.
• ·         “Peer groups are half the equation”: simply put, when put into a peer group of high achievers, children rise to the occasion (the opposite works as well!).

Any thoughts or comments? I would specially be interested in hearing from Parents and Teachers.

11PlusDIY - www.11plusdiy.co.uk

More Verbal Reasoning Question Types

In my last blog I explained the main types VR questions and their classifications. As I mentioned, most 11+ content creators and providers talk in terms of (roughly) the same classification. But if you look at the past exam papers and other preparatory material, you would have noticed that there is more to VR than these 21 types of questions!

Given that these 21 types do not adequately cover all the types which we see in the exams, 11PlusDIY have extended this classification with a few addiotional ones. In most cases these represent a variation of the standard type, but it is helpful to treat it as separate.

TYPE-X-1 : Find the word which cant be made	Question: TEMPTATION [MINT: MAIN: MAIL: MEANT: TEMPT] Answer: MAIL (As there is no 'L' in TEMPTATION)
TYPE-X-2 : Word Ladder	Question: SEED [_____]  FEES Answer : FEED
TYPE-X-3 : Direct Code	Question: In a secret code 'YDIRTLULSBDG' stands for 'PSYCHOLOGIST'. Using the same code work out how 'SCOTCH' should be written. Answer: DRLGRT
TYPE-X-4 : Alphabetical order	Question: If the words in the list below were arranged in APLHABETICAL order: which word would be THIRD? [ACHIEVE: ASSESS: ANGUISH: ABUSIVE: ACHIEVING] Answer: ACHIEVING
TYPE-X-5 : Reverse Alphabetical order	If the following words were written BACKWARDS and then put into ALPHABETICAL order: which word would be THIRD? [CONTACT: COTTON: CLINICAL: CAUSING: CONCISE] Answer:
TYPE-X-6 : Missing Alphabet	Which alphabet occurs in 'DINING': but not in 'SANDWICH'? Answer: G
TYPE-X-7 : Twice occurring alphabet	Question: Which letter occurs twice in 'PENALTIES' and also twice in 'REVEALING'? Answer: E
TYPE-X-8 : Most occurring alphabet	Question: Which letter of the Alphabet occurs most often in 'EXAGGERATE' Answer: E
TYPE-X-9 : Middle letter of word position	Question: Which position does the MIDDLE letter of the word 'APPLICATION' occupy in the Alphabet? Answer: 3
TYPE-X-10 : Reverse alphabet positions	Question: If the alphabet were written out backwards: what would be the letter at position 25? Answer: B
TYPE-X-11 : Repeated letter in words	Question: Which letter of the alphabet occurs TWICE in 'REVOLTED', THREE times in 'EXECUTIVE'. but not at all in 'BLOWING'? Answer: E
NFER_TYPE_X12	If all the ALPHABETS in the word 'THOROUGHFARE' were removed from the alphabet: which letter would be in position 4 in the new alphabet?
NFER_TYPE_X13	If all the VOWELS in the word 'THOROUGHFARE' were removed from the alphabet: which letter would be in position 4 in the new alphabet?
NFER_TYPE_X14	If all the CONSONANTS in the word 'THOROUGHFARE' were removed from the alphabet: which letter would be in position 4 in the new alphabet?
NFER_TYPE_X15	Which letter comes exactly midway in the alphabet between 'E' and the ELEVENTH letter?
NFER_TYPE_X16	Which CONSONANT in the word 'IMAGINATION' comes latest in the alphabet?
NFER_TYPE_X17	Which VOWEL in the word 'APATHETIC' comes latest in the alphabet?
NFER_TYPE_X18	Which VOWEL occurs TWICE in 'INCLUSION': but only ONCE in 'IMPERFECT'?
NFER_TYPE_X19	LOGIC
NFER_TYPE_X20	LOGIC
NFER_TYPE_X21: Reorder words in sentence	Question: You will think that have ought to they been very happy [THINK: THEY: HAVE: OUGHT] Answer: THEY, HAVE
NFER_TYPE_X22 : Anagram in sentence	Question: You can imagine their NEGFSIEL Answer: FEELINGS
NFER_TYPE_X23 : Anagram related to words	Question: ETERNITY ( total: sum ) Answer: ENTIRETY

In the table above question type X-4 to x-20 are covered in the “catch-the-all” type-21 of the standard VR question types. Similarly question types X-6 to x-18 are all very similar and you also find a few other variants of these along the same lines.

Even if you are sure that the school you are preparing for uses “nothing but the standard types”it is recommeneded that the preparation include as many variations of these standard types as possible. 

11PlusDIY - www.11PlusDIY.co.uk