Children's Educational Material for the 11+^TM Forum

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Are 11+ tests resistant to preparation?

There are claims that the 11+ tests set by CEM Centre, Durham University® are resistant to prepping.

We have never seen any evidence to substantiate this. In fact our evidence is that once these tests are introduced, the amount of preparation increases substantially. In some areas tuition centres have extended their courses and have had to expand the range of what is covered, which clearly takes time to cover. This is exactly the opposite of what was intended.

Many centres set work that takes one hour a day to complete and there are many children in many competitive areas that clock up over 15 hours a week. May parents conceal the amount of time their children spend preparing and some even deny that they actually prepare at all. In some areas, taking the test is a secret and children even tell their friends they are taking a test.

Contrary to what many have been told, the content of tests often goes beyond what a typical year 5 child would have covered. To be fully prepared, in the most competitive areas, children should complete the work covered in year 6. This means covering the year 6 maths syllabus a year early.

Often most of year 6 is spent on revision for SATs, and very little new is actually learnt. Being at level 5 is usefully and in children in the most competitive areas where schools have different qualifying scores, level 6 ability is recommended.

State schools are supposed to stretch children and many simply don’t. That is why we believe, for most children, preparation is essential.

Parents do not have to pay for tuition, they can easily prepare their children themselves. There are plenty of free resources and SATs papers are free to download, and ideal practice.

For those who want to prepare at home using online systems, two ideal solutions are: http://www.WordBuilder.co.uk for verbal reasoning and http://www.CoolCleverKids.co.uk for maths. Useful resources and practice mocks are available from http://www.11plus.eu.