Reading Eleven Plus Questions

Literally hundreds of our Eleven Plus children will be writing their practice tests for the Eleven Plus tomorrow.

Some children may not read some of the questions carefully enough. After the practice examination, possibly even waiting until Monday, read through some questions with your child.

Errors that may hold up answering questions carefully include:

Using a finger or pencil to read a question on a word by word basis – as this tends to focus the eyes on the words in the question rather than on the content of the question.

Vocalising the words – or even sub vocalising the question as this tends, sometimes, to slow the reading of the question down so much that your child may have to keep reading a question over and over.

Regressing along a line of the question – this is where the eye goes back to look at a word. This can develop into a poor examination habit as the mind can then lose what the question is asking.

What advice can be offered to Eleven Plus parents and their children?

Read the questions at a measured pace.

Reread the question.

Look for spurious and unlikely multiple choice answers. This will help to eliminate answers that can not possibly be right.

Practice with your child the art of reading a sentence.

Work on the technique of answering questions rather than encouraging your child to complete yet another paper. Too many papers in the final week will do very little good what so ever.