Just two years after adopting the GL exam format, Bexley is moving to Quest Assessments.

Here’s what that means for you and your child.

Bexley council isn’t providing a tailored sample paper to parents. Instead, they’re referring parents to the familiarisation materials on the Quest website.

It remains to be seen whether the Quest sample papers are truly representative of the questions Bexley has selected for the exam. Some test providers tweak their papers based on a school’s requests, so we can’t guarantee that the real test will be identical to the practice materials on the Quest website.

Here’s what we know based on the familiarisation materials.

Key Bexley 11+ Changes

Maths

The maths paper may test a slightly wider range of topics than GL and the old Bexley exams. This includes, but is not limited to, addition and subtraction of fractions.

View Quest’s maths familiarisation paper

Verbal Ability (Comprehension and Verbal Reasoning)

This looks like a return to traditional Bexley form, where the questions focus on comprehension and vocabulary. That potentially means no “Quick Codes” style questions (i.e. sequences, matching codes, code analogies) and no SPaG.

Based on Quest’s verbal reasoning paper, it looks like the Bexley verbal ability paper could include logic questions alongside vocabulary questions.

View Quest’s English familiarisation paper

View Quest’s verbal reasoning familiarisation paper

Non-verbal reasoning

This paper probably contains the biggest changes.

In addition to non-verbal reasoning, the sample paper includes spatial reasoning and, unfortunately, cubes and nets.

View Quest’s non-verbal reasoning familiarisation paper

Exam Format

Although Quest offers computerised assessments, the Bexley website makes it clear that the test will continue to be paper-based. There will be two papers: one containing comprehension and verbal ability; the other containing numerical reasoning and non-verbal reasoning.

Why has Bexley made such a last-minute change to their exam?

Eleven Plus exams exist to identify the children who are naturally gifted, as they will thrive in the highly academic, competitive grammar school environment. They’re not looking for children who have only passed because of extreme study schedules and a great deal of repetition.

This mindset means it’s not that unusual for grammar schools to change an exam format with relatively little notice – St. Olave’s once added reasoning to their exam and added a new stage with only four months’ notice.

Similarly, GL Assessments aim to add a couple of entirely new question styles to their exam each year to identify the most adaptable students.

This is why we do not recommend focusing on a single exam format too early in your 11+ preparation.

Whilst you may be concerned the changes will be disadvantageous to your child, all children will be in the same boat. If all children perform worse than they normally would, the pass threshold will simply be lowered for the year.

Despite the changes, there are reasons to be cheerful, especially if you’re a Kin Learning regular. Here’s why:

Reasons to be cheerful

The scoring system will stay the same

Bexley will continue to award 50% of marks for verbal ability (A.K.A. English skills), 25% for numerical reasoning (maths), and 25% for non-verbal reasoning. This is the same breakdown they’ve always used.

Your child should be a good all-rounder already

We’re always aware that exams could be tweaked or overhauled a few months before test day. Technically, schools are entitled to make significant exam changes with no announcement whatsoever.

For that reason, we’ve always aimed for our students to be good all-rounders, who are adaptable and confident in applying their existing knowledge to new question styles. That means we’re prepared for exactly this sort of situation.

We have the study materials already

Many of our students are already using spatial reasoning books, and we already have material to cover the additional maths topics. We will need to bring Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages: Book Two out of retirement, but that’s easily done.

We’ve been covering the right vocabulary

The recommended vocabulary list from Quest contains exactly the kind of words we incorporate in the Micro English books and within the Wordier vocabulary program. (More on that later.)

If you’ve used any of the Wordier materials thus far, you’ll already have covered a good chunk of the words on their vocab list.

The good news is that Quest isn’t expecting children to regurgitate a bunch of obsolete terms. They’re simply asking them to have sophisticated, usable language at their fingertips. This is exactly what Wordier was designed for.

If you haven’t already started Wordier, I’d recommend using at least one of the books, flashcards, or courses as soon as possible. If your child’s been doing the courses, it would be great if you could review the flashcards in the school holidays, as these explore an additional 200+ words. Don’t forget, as a Kin Learning customer, you’re entitled to a special discount. Just email me if you need the coupon code.

Prepare for the Quest test with Wordier’s illustrated flashcards