An Eleven Plus Epiphany

When Archimedes realised that he knew how to estimate the volume of a given mass by sitting in his bath, he shouted, "Eureka!" or "I have found it!” The story goes that he ran without waiting for any clothes.

This moment of realisation is called an epiphany. It is that sweet moment when you realise that you have solved a problem.

We can think of children working through eleven plus papers today. As each major problem is solved the children have thrown their hands in the air. The words `I have found it’ will have rung throughout the land.

The word `epiphany’ will be forced from the mouths of anxious parents. Their hopes for the future will hang in the balance. And as the parents wend their ways to bed, slightly relaxed after a good red wine, they will whisper to each other: “That was a good epiphany today.”