Eleven Plus and Open Questions

Eleven Plus questions, in some authorities, are often characterised under two general headings. In an open question the eleven plus child has to provide an answer by writing an answer to a question. The answer could be an essay or a piece of creative writing. The closed question requires the eleven plus child to choose an answer from several alternatives.

Closed questions are used in eleven plus examinations because they fulfil every aspect of marking consistency. Some types of closed questions, however, seem to encourage rote learning. After all some children can be taught how to analyse questions - and evaluate possible multiple choice answers.

It would be interesting to know what approach to `guessing' answers takes place when a child runs out of time at the end of a paper. People have won the National Lottery by selting random numbers - or Luck Dips. How will your child react if he or she unfortunately has to answer ten questions in three minutes at the end of an examination? Will he or she go for the all ten `C' answers or will the answers be selected at random? What will your advice be?