I am often asked by confused parents what the difference is between the 11+ Grammar and 11+ Independent School exams.
A quick answer would be that the preparation is fairly similar but the outcome very different.
Students who take the 11+ Grammar exams are sitting exams with the opportunity of gaining a place at a free grammar school in their area. To sit the exam you need to apply to take the test with your Local Education Authority by the cut off date. If a student successfully achieves the pass grade they may be offered a place at the Grammar school of their choice. Places are very competitive due to the limited places available.
Students taking the 11+ Independent school exams are hoping to be offered a place at a fee-paying school of their choice and entering the school at Secondary level. Parents choosing this route will be paying for their child's private education, unless a scholarship is offered due to a student's outstanding potential in a specific subject or skill, e.g. gymnastics or maths.
Some students take both types of exam, allowing families the option to choose between both avenues of education if they are successful in their exams.
To prepare for the 11+ Grammar school exams, you must apply with the local authority to take the exam ahead of the cut off time. The deadline for this is usually a date in the summer term ahead of the September exam date. Most students begin their revision preparation for the grammar exams well in advance, many beginning a year in advance, some even 18 months or two years ahead.
Students would need to familiarise themselves with the four parts of the grammar exam: maths, Verbal Reasoning, Non-verbal Reasoning and English.
It is useful to take practice tests ahead of the actual exam to have that experience of what a paper really looks like and how much content will be on a paper. You may even wish to book mock tests and give your child the experience of taking the exam in a classroom setting with other children. This can often help to build confidence and allow children to feel better prepared for test day.
To prepare for the 11+ Independent School exams, a student must also be familiar with the maths, Verbal and Non-verbal Reasoning requirements. It is the English preparation that is the main difference. For the Independent school exams, the exam is split into two parts: reading comprehension and a written essay. Written responses are required to a comprehension text and a creative piece of writing needs to be produced under exam conditions.
The written responses are expected to be reasonably lengthy, so lots of comprehension practice is key here. Understanding how to answer lengthy comprehension questions can be tricky so finding practice materials that give guidance or an experienced tutor can really help students to excel in this skill.
Creative writing tasks vary on the independent exams, but usually follow a typical theme. The themes are varied around continuing on from a given text, writing a description from a picture stimulus or creating a short story based on a brief.
For the Grammar exams, the English requirements are in a different format, using multiple choice comprehension answers and a strong focus on vocabulary.
Be prepared for the vocabulary expectations to be high. Students should revise the meaning of words using word banks or vocabulary flash cards, such as these offered by CGP.
Practising using flash cards can help build up a memory bank of vocabulary for students that they can then apply to synonym and antonyms based tasks.
For the grammar exam comprehension students needs to be confident in their inference skills. Even though the questions will be multi-choice this does not mean they are easier that those that require a written response. The questions often offer very similar answer choices with subtle differences in meaning. The students must therefore establish a really secure understanding of the short text in order to answer to the best of their ability. It goes without saying that ready the question very carefully is paramount.
11+ Grammar and 11+ Independent exam tuition
Regardless of which avenue you choose to take, or maybe even both, my group revision courses offer all the support you need and more for a stress-free 11+ revision experience.
See my 11 Plus Tuition Courses page for all the details of my tuition courses supporting the Warwickshire 11+ and Birmingham 11+ exams.
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