11+ and ISEB Pretest

With entrance exams in Year 6 now so fiercely competitive, whether these be the ISEB Common Pre-Test, individual entrance exams to Senior Independent Schools or 11+ exams to Grammar Schools, there is no doubt that this year represents the most stressful and intense of a young student’s life.

With the landscape constantly changing, the tests developing each year and a huge amount of insecurity about the best way to prepare for these exams, there is a real risk of putting damagingly high levels of stress on students who are only 9 or 10 years old. 

It is unfortunately also true that many in the tutoring sector feed off this insecurity - insisting that theirs in the only support, whether this be for thousands of hours or thousands of pounds, that will gain a student advantage over their competitors at this stage. The worrying side-effect is that students are being subjected to levels of extra tuition that not only is exhausting them but is also not leading to tangible benefits in the exams themselves. Yes, it is true that, with the ISEB Pre-Test and the 11+ exams early in the school year, students must ensure they’ve covered the whole Maths syllabus and worked through enough variety of Verbal, Non-Verbal and English papers both online and in paper, but there is a limit to how much extra work is actually beneficial (the tests themselves even say that they are not “preparable for”).

At Pegasus, we strongly believe in responsible preparation for these entrance tests in Year 6. There is no doubt that completing the Maths syllabus in good time, and then really pushing a student with challenging materials that test analytical reasoning and stretch beyond the syllabus will put a student in a strong position. It is also vital that students have at least seen and practised all of the different types of Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning questions that might appear in the tests. Discussing English comprehensions with an experienced and passionate English teacher can of course open avenues of thought and inference that may not have been possible before, and having mature discussions about potential interview topics will provide students with material and direction to fall back on when it matters most.

But the key at this stage is to keep it fun. Short but regular work can allow students to build their knowledge whilst still enjoying their holidays and their time at school. Working on logic puzzles, English quizzes and Maths games can be interspersed with past papers so that students don’t burn out long before the tests and begin to resent the entire process. This, of course, is what is most important; a student who is fresh, enthusiastic and adequately prepared will far outperform one who has been drowning in extra hours for a period of years. 

Below is a summary of the content of the tests, along with some useful revision materials, syllabuses and online links. We would be delighted to discuss any questions you have regarding entrance exams in Year 6, and have a dedicated team who are ready to help! We can also advise on school choices, as well as 10+ and 12+ entrance exams.