Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Hello,
does anyone know what sort of reasoning test the children do in January?
Thanks

I have no idea! Son didn't give much info

Verbal and non verbal - check out 11 plus practise tests from Smiths etc.

I'm very much aware of how it feels to really want your child to get a place at CH, BUT...


I didn't do a single thing to prepare my daughter for the tests. The way I see it is that either she is clever enough, or she is not. If she is not, she doesn't belong there. If I'd helped her to do well in the tests, when really she just wasn't up to it, then surely her time at CH would be miserable, with her struggling to keep up all the time. I realise that with most of the lucky ones having been at the top of the class in primary school, they cannot possibly all hope to be top of the class at CH, but they should still be capable of the work.

I SO hope she is clever enough though, we're just at the waiting to hear stage now...

We didn't do any practise tests either! That might come back and bite me on the bum in a week or two though

Well, we'll soon find out won't we!

Mostly I'm just curious as to what lies ahead as the school have already said you can't practise for them anyway.

well from what i remember from taking the exam 28 years ago and from son now - the schools aptitude tests are self developed and different from any of the "standard" ones - they have many many years of corelating the results against later attainment and therefore feel confident in their validity - it also means they get a true result and not a measure of whose parents spent the most on tutoring or in WHS

Thanks, that really answers my question. Glad to know tutoring will make no difference as it means don't have to do it!!!! Yes!
The only reason I would consider tutoring is thinking that other parents would be doing it anyway, and not wanting my child to be at a disadvantage. Yes, I think kids shouldn't need it really, but looking at forums, it appears that they all get it now, or at any rate, a large proportion do. This may well reflect dissatisfaction in the level of education in primary schools rather than a need to push a child. Not sure, but whatever the reason, it appears that it goes on. You get torn. Do you tutor a bit, or do you just rely on your child's innate intelligence to shine through?
Oops, there goes that flying pig again.

In preparing my daughter for the November exam she did the papers available on the CH website and some 11+ ones. From my own point of view I just wanted to make sure she was used to doing papers. Once we started the process, although she could complete the papers reasonably well, we discovered her weakness was working to a specific time and being aware of the passage of time. Other things that came to light was the fact that I have done more exams in my time than I care to remember and assumed my daughter would know such things as if she was stuck on a question to move on ... alas ... she would spend 20 minutes trying to figure out a maths question only worth a handful of marks! She also gained a great deal of confidence and I feel went into the November exams without that sense of fear I remember so well! I'm in full support of not over-preparing a child for the exams - the consquences - if they get in - could make for a miserable few years. However, enabling a child to show their full potential in an exam cannot be a bad thing. Under a week to go now until we know!

Good luck to your daughter, cupcakemom, hope she gets in.
My son is similar. If he gets a question he struggles on, he keeps on struggling and then just gets cross.
I will take your advice and tell him to just move on, and maybe come back to that one if he has time.
Not till November this year though.
Fil

I agree with cupcakmom, we only practised papers with our son so he was used to exam papers. We didn't try and cram loads of knowledge in to him as I think this would have been transparent to the staff at CH. It was just a matter of him getting used to papers so he didn't panic. That said he came out of the January exams saying he had got stuck and hadn't finished and he didn't think he would pass. Well he did and he is doing fine at CH !

Ah, comforting words, CHDad ... can I blame you if it all goes pear-shaped on Monday?!! A couple of things I am bearing in mind - if it does go pear shaped ... simply not meant to be ... and it's not like CH have made any snap decisions! Could I cross my fingers any tighter?!