We do allow Year 4s to take our mock exams. You can opt to either sit a Year 5 paper or a Year 4
paper. For more advice on this, please see the following blogpost –

https://kinlearning.com/2020/03/04/mock-test-faqs-should-my-year-4-child-sit-an-eleven-plus-mock.

Yes, although we advise that you take a mock that is most like the exam in your area. For the
Surrey 11+ and the Central London private schools, we recommend sitting the St. Olave’s mock
(which is harder than the general private school mock that we provide). For CEM papers, we
recommend the Bexley mock and for GL, we recommend the Kent mock.

We run an Easter course and a summer course for the 11+. Dates and bookings can be made via
our website at https://kinlearning.com/11-easter-course-in-bromley-2/ and
https://kinlearning.com/11-plus-summer-school-bromley/.

We run mock tests annually for the Eleven Plus. We offer different papers for each of the local
exams – Newstead Wood, Bexley, Kent, St. Olave’s and private schools. Mock test bookings can be
made via our website at https://kinlearning.com/11-plus-mock-tests/. Mock tests are available for
Year 4 and Year 5 students.

Booking and availability for all mock tests can be found on our website. Please visit the following
page for more information:

https://kinlearning.com/11-plus-mock-tests/

Rather than providing your child’s ranking in their mock exam, we provide a predicted exam
score, based on which exam your child is sitting.

The predicted exam score is based on a proprietary algorithm that has been developed using
several years of historical data on children’s scores in our mock exam versus their scores in their
real exams.

Your child’s predicted score automatically takes their ranking into account, however, it goes a step
further by factoring in your child’s likely improvement over the next few months and weighting
the subjects in the same way as the real exam.

We know that our score prediction algorithm is accurate as multiple parents every year tell us that
our score prediction was exactly or almost exactly the same as their child’s real exam score.

MOCK TEST COMPARISON

The example below shows how our mock test summary compares to other providers. The
following excerpts are from real reports for a student that sat the Bexley exam in 2020. This child
scored 215 in the real exam.

and non-verbal reasoning and 781 out of 1287 in English.

Although the child was sitting a Bexley mock with the other provider, their English paper also
included questions on punctuation, spelling and verbal reasoning, none of which are included in
the real Bexley exam. This therefore skewed her ranking and was misleading for the parents.

CHILD’S REAL BEXLEY EXAM RESULTS

KIN LEARNING MOCK EXAM SUMMARY – 18 August 2020

Note: The Bexley exam pass mark was 218 from 2017 until 2019, however, Kin Learning predicted
that the pass mark would fall to 214 in 2020 (due to disruption from the pandemic), which is exactly what happened.

MOCK COMPETITOR A REPORT – 28 August 2020

Rather than offering an overall prediction of the child’s score, the competitor’s report gave her
ranking in two different papers. The child’s English ranking put her in the bottom 50% of students
and the summary of her skills categorised her as “weak”. This mistakenly gave the impression that
the child had a very slim chance of passing.

Maths and Non-Verbal Reasoning Results

English Results

Our papers are written using a combination of the practice papers from schools and anecdotal
evidence from our past pupils. Each year, our tutors speak to students that have recently sat the
exam and find out as much as we can about the content of the exam and the questions they
found difficult. We then incorporate this feedback into our papers so that they are as realistic as
possible.

The number of questions in the exam varies depending on which paper your child is sitting.
Where this information is available, we try to adhere to the timings and number of questions that
your child will encounter in the real exam.

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we are not permitted to allow parents to wait on-site during
mock exams.

For mocks held at Bishop Justus School, you may wish to visit shops in nearby Chatterton Village
(search for Chatterton Road in Maps) or to head to Bromley town centre while your child sits their
exam.

The number of questions in the exam varies depending on which paper your child is sitting.
Where this information is available, we try to adhere to the timings and number of questions that
your child will encounter in the real exam.

Raw scores are how many marks they scored on the test, standardised scores compare students
to the average performance of other children, which is what happens in a real 11+ exam.

At Kin Learning, we are able to become experts on the local grammar school exams by drawing
on all of our wealth of 11+ research and using by using feedback from past students. Each year,
we speak to students immediately after their exams to find out which topics were tested and we
use this knowledge to develop our mock tests.

Many mock test providers do not have a tutoring division to inform them, and they also write
mock tests to be used up and down the country. Due to the general nature of these papers, they
may differ significantly from the papers your child will actually sit. However, our papers are
written for each individual school so that they can be as close to the real thing as possible.

As you can see from the testimonials on our website, many of our past customers have declared
that our mocks are “the closest” or “almost exactly the same” as many of the local exams. They
have also got back to us to tell us that our mock score predictions were almost spot on to their
child’s real scores.

The biggest difference between the real-life Bexley and Kent exams is in the English and verbal
reasoning sections. Officially, both exams have a verbal reasoning section, however, these differ
greatly in content.

The Bexley verbal reasoning section contains a comprehension passage, a range of questions on
synonyms and antonyms and a cloze test (a set of questions in which children need to fill the
appropriate missing word into a sentence).

Whilst the Kent exam also contains a comprehension section, it also features what we call “true”
verbal reasoning. These are the code questions you’ll be used to seeing in the Bond Assessment
Papers, e.g. “if the code for ABATE is ZAZSD, what is the code for BRICK?” or “find the four-letter
word hidden in the sentence.”

The English section of the Kent exam also includes spelling, punctuation and grammar questions
that are not included in the Bexley exam.

Mock test results are generally sent out within 5 working days of the date of the test. Results will
be sent by email.

10 July 2021 Mock Exam
As this date was a last-minute addition to our mock exam schedule, reports will take slightly
longer than usual. We expect to send all reports out to parents within 7 working days of the
exam.

Your first consideration here will need to be which schools you prefer. If you aren’t seriously
considering the schools in a particular area, then sit the mock for your first choice schools. This
will mean that your child will get practice in the right range of subjects, and will also mean that
your child’s predicted score is more useful.

If you are equally keen for your child to go to a Bexley or a Kent school, look next at your
motivation for having your child sit a mock test. If you’re booking a mock test to give your child
practice in sitting an exam, you should probably go for the Kent mock test as this mock tests a
wider range of subjects and will give your child the opportunity to practise their verbal reasoning
and SPAG skills in an exam environment.

If your main motivation for sitting a mock test is to get your child’s predicted score, it is probably
better to do the Bexley mock as this requires a slightly higher standard in order to pass.
Mock test booking details for Bromley and Sidcup can be found here.

Our summer schools will give your child the chance to work on the weaknesses highlighted in
their mock exam with the help of our expert teachers. Details of our summer schools can be
viewed here.

There are usually three primary reasons for doing a mock test:

1. To check your child’s understanding of the topics they already know.
Many children can panic when presented with a question style they’ve never seen before,
regardless of whether or not they have the knowledge to complete it. A mock exam will tell you
how your child is able to apply their existing knowledge in new ways.

2. To help children to overcome pre-exam nerves and reduce anxiety on the day of the real
thing.
We often find that children and their parents can be surprised by the level of anxiety they feel
about the exam (even though they know it’s only a mock). However, our customers report that, by
introducing children to an exam environment early, they are significantly more relaxed on the day
of the exam and are able to perform better.

3. To find out what your child still needs to learn.
If you are unsure of the topics your child still needs to cover, our post-exam feedback will be
extremely helpful. We are unique in reviewing your child’s working as well as their final exam. This information is great to have at an early stage so we can structure your child’s revision accordingly.

Although the local schools have papers on the broadly same subjects – maths, English, verbal
reasoning and non-verbal reasoning – the styles of these papers differ greatly. For this reason,
our mock tests are written specifically for each school, rather than by subject.

If you are unsure which school to book for, we advise you to prioritise either the school that
would be your first choice or to call one of our team who will be able to advise you.

The average scores are there mostly to gave you an idea of whether its’s a hard or an easy paper,
for example. one non-verbal reasoning paper has a historical high score of 16 out of 20 so clearly
all children have a bit of trouble with this section. Please note that the average and high scores do
not factor in the time of year so do not be alarmed if you sit a mock earlier in the year and your
child is significantly below the high score for the paper.

Standardised score is what we predict they’d get if they sat the exam tomorrow. Predicted score
takes into account the time of year and the improvement that is a child is likely to make in the
time before the exam. We advise customers to focus more on the predicted score.

If you are comparing your child’s performance in two different mocks, you may wish to focus on
the standardised score or the percentage score in order to see if they have improved generally.

For copyright protection reasons, we do not provide the full mock paper after the exam.

For maths sections, you will receive a list of all topics tested and how your child performed in
each topic. We will also include personalised notes on where your child went wrong in their
calculations.

For English papers, you will be provided with the questions (though not the original extract), your
child’s multiple-choice answer and notes on any misconceptions demonstrated by their answer.

For the Newstead verbal reasoning exam, you will receive a list of the questions your child
answered incorrectly.

For the Kent and Olave’s verbal reasoning sections, you will receive a summary of results by topic.

Finally, in non-verbal reasoning, you will receive an example question indicating the style of
question included in that section. You will also receive your child’s mark for each section.

For revision purposes, we have found that students do not need to go through the exact mock
paper as these are not the questions that will feature in the real exam. We therefore advise that
you use your child’s report and our notes on their individual performance to plan their study over
the coming weeks or months.

Yes. Our exam invigilators and markers will pass on useful information on your child’s exam
technique.

Kin Learning provide 11+ mock tests throughout the academic year. To help with your child’s 11+
preparation, you may also be interested in our weekly classes and 11+ summer schools for Years 4
and 5.

Once Kin Learning pupils have attended one of our mock exams, we will use that mock report to
guide their upcoming lessons. In class, we will provide several examples of the type of question
that your child struggled with in the mock. Of course, we will also provide thorough explanations
of topics where necessary.

Most likely, we will also go over your child’s actual mock test paper in one of their classes. This
may not happen immediately after the mock as there may be others in their class that are yet to
sit that paper. We aim to go through the mock paper at some point before their real 11+ exam,
however.

Will your papers be suitable for the GL and CEM exams?
Yes, our papers are designed to closely match the exam board that writes the paper for each
school. Therefore, our Bexley mock exam will closely resemble CEM papers and the Newstead and
Kent mocks will replicate the GL-style of paper.

The St. Olave’s exam is written by the school themselves and our exams therefore replicate
Olave’s own style. As St. Olave’s are holding their own Stage 1 mock exams this year, our papers
will replicate the Stage 2 exam. We advise all potential St. Olave’s candidates to prepare for both
the Stage 1 and Stage 2 exams throughout Years 4 and 5 as there is very little time between the
two exams.

Will your papers be exactly the same as the CEM and GL papers I buy in shops?
The school papers written by CEM and GL differ slightly from the papers available in shops. This is
because neither exam board releases full details of the content of their exam. This is particularly
true for CEM, who release very limited sample papers.