Hi all,

I recently got my son to do one of the free CPG maths tests. They have a short section (30 questions in 10 mins) and a long section (20 questions in 25 mins).

He was really thrown by the short section, too many questions for the time allowed.

Having looked at various example tests online, the CEM tests seem to vary. Some have as few as 7 short questions in 10 mins, some have 15, some have 30.

Does it vary from school to school? Is there any way to find out?

He is more than capable of answering them all, but totally crumbled by the pressure of a seemingly impossible task. If I know in advance, we can practice the speed element, but if the real exam doesn't have so many questions, I would rather focus my efforts elsewhere.

Thanks

Hi,
In general, CEM does have lots of short sections with tight timings. The sections vary in length and number of questions. Working quickly is definitely needed. I think you won't be able to find out exactly what your son will be facing, so it is best to give him experience of practising different types of sections with different amounts of questions in so he is less fazed on the day.

I guess it also depends on how old your son is and how long you have to prepare before he sits the exam. Is he sitting this year or next? It also depends on which school you are applying for, and the test they use.

If you are early on in your preparation, working on understanding concepts and accuracy is more important than speed - and then working on practising as many different types of CEM papers as you can lay your hands on to pick up speed later on. Exam technique comes into it nearer the time too - i.e. when there is only a minute left to quickly pick a letter and fill in any blank questions on the multiple choice answer sheet so non are left unanswered.

My daughter did CEM and found that the real thing was easier and less time pressured than many of the practice papers / mocks, which I think is the right way round really. You wouldn't want to have easy practice papers / mocks and then find the real thing is much harder.

Btw - a manic miner fan here too!

My DD found the maths timings to be tight (Gloucestershire) I also found the practice papers tight for maths. She (and I) tends to be stronger at English than maths, but we're both relatively strong in maths too. I suspect it's because they need to sort between the strong and the very strong...so a lot of DC's will struggle to complete all the questions in at least a couple of sections. DD found it quite reassuring to hear that she wasn't expected to be able to answer every question without guessing.

Thanks

He will be doing the test in Sept of this year.

When untimed, he is scoring close to 100% on the maths and NVR

Tends to get between 70-80% on the VR

But it is when timed, he has a meltdown.

I think you are right, best to give him the worst case scenario to rehearse (30 questions in 10 mins) my only worry then is will he rush if actually has more time in the real thing. I used to work at the school he is applying to, kicking myself for never looking at the structure of the test more closely

All my children had meltdowns when timed too at first - this is why I found booking a few mocks helped - once they got used to everyone being timed rather than just me timing them at home, they coped with it much better.

Re - the rushing - this is what my son was like (unlike my slow and precise daughter). He worked very quickly, but often made careless errors due to rushing and got questions he could easily answer wrong because of this. Got very grumpy when I pointed the need to check more carefully. He only took it on board after a mock when he scored considerably lower than expected on Maths. When we received feedback - he'd skipped a whole page of questions in his rush - after that, he was a lot more careful and got a better balance between speed and accuracy!

Thanks, sounds very familiar.

CGP 10 minute tests really helped my son get faster. He took the CEM 11+ last year and managed to finish fhe maths sections. He didn't quite finish the NVR though. The tests are made to be tight for time, teach your son to skip any questions that may be too time consuming.

Hi jetsetwilly!

My DD too found the short Maths questions the hardest. So we got extra ones wherever we could. In the last few months, we started to use older age group Bond books for harder short questions. She found this helpful for tests in all formats.