Kent Test (11+) Experiences - 2014 and 2015

Changes made to the Kent Test in 2014:

In 2014 the Kent Test underwent a large revision- the aim being to lessen the impact of tutoring.

The 2 main changes were:

1) The addition of English into the exam.

2) Reduce the influence of the Verbal and Non-Verbal reasoning papers. In theory, the rationale (especially in NVR) behind reasoning questions is to act as a “neutral” way of testing a child’s aptitude levels. However, their obscure nature means that there is a huge advantage to those who have been tutored and drilled in these types of reasoning questions. As a result their importance in the Kent Test has been reduced. Whilst prior to 2014, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning made up two of the three papers- they have now been squeezed into 1 paper. In addition to this, this single paper now also includes a “Spatial awareness” element to it.

The exams in 2014 and 2015 were both administered by GL Assessment- and they will continue to provide the same service in 2016. GL Assessment also produces practice papers, and the feedback from my children is that there were similarities between the types of questions in these papers and those that they found in the exam. Whilst 2016 may be different, the GL practice packs were the perfect platform to familiarise my children to the format and type of questions that they experienced in the 2014 and 2015 tests.

Raw Marks to pass the Kent Test:

One misconception that parents often have is that they believe that the Kent Test raw pass mark is high. However, as the following link details, the pass mark can be as low as 40% (though this differs with age and on the paper taken).
http://www.elevenplusforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=115&start=0

The 2014 & 2015 Kent Tests:

The Kent Test in 2014&2015 was made up of 3 papers: Maths, English and Reasoning. All are completed within a single morning! In addition there is an additional short writing task in the afternoon which is only reviewed for borderline cases.

The following are some personal notes from the 2014 and 2015 exams. These were largely based on post exam recollections from my children- and as such I can’t vouch for their accuracy!

Maths Paper:

The 2014 Maths paper was extremely hard, with my eldest child and her friends detailing that they found it exceptionally tricky. A reasonable number of questions were (on feedback) of a multi-step type, something that wasn’t helped by the short amount of time to complete the questions (50 seconds a question). The result was that large numbers of pupils (reflected in both friends and forum board feedback) did not finish the paper. My eldest child ended up guessing the last 5 questions!

From my youngest child’s feedback, the experience of the 2014 paper was acted on and the 2015 paper seemed a lot easier. In addition to this, the number of questions was reduced to a more sensible 60 seconds a question.

Year	Total Questions	Total Time
2014	30	25
2015	25	25

            This table provides a summary of the number of Maths questions and time allowed for the 2014 and 2015 exams.

English Paper:

The English paper in 2014 and 2015 consisted of 24 questions, and from feedback they largely mirror the type of questions found within the GL Assessment practice papers.

The 2014 paper consisted of: a comprehension section (about a half to three-quarters as long as those found within the GL Assessment practise papers); spot the spelling mistakes in a section of text (like the type found within the GL Assessment practise papers); and a ‘choose the best word, or group of words’ section (again just like the type in the GL Assessment practise papers). I’ve lost the detail on the type of questions that my youngest child had- however, they again mirrored the types found within the GL Assessment practise papers. It is worth noting that I don’t believe the “capital letters and punctuation” type questions have been used over the past 2 years. Whether this is intentional- I don’t know. However, my kids found these the trickier type of question in the GL practise papers.

The following is a summary of the number of Maths questions and time from the 2014 and 2015 exams.

Year	Total Questions	Total Time
2014	24	25
2015	24	25

This table provides a summary of the number of English questions and time allowed for the 2014 and 2015 exams. 

Reasoning Paper:

 The reasoning paper in both 2014 and 2015 was split into three sections containing Non-Verbal reasoning, Verbal Reasoning and Spatial Awareness.

The first half of this paper consists of Non-verbal reasoning and Spatial awareness.

The Non-verbal section consisted of 3 separate sections. If the feedback from my children is correct-most (all?) of the types of question in this exam mirror the types of questions in the GL Assessment papers.

The Spatial Awareness consists of 2 separate sections. These sections are an unknown quantity, and given that all the kids are in the same position this is probably a good thing! My notes on what these type of questions consisted of are a little vague- however, I believe in 2014 the type of questions involved making a 3d shape out of partial parts and counting the number of cubes in a 3d shape. My notes on 2015 are even vaguer, but I think one of the sections was based on shape nets (which were beyond those of just squares). However, each spatial section has been different over the past two years, and I can’t help thinking this trend will continue this year.

The Verbal section consists of (I believe) 30 questions to tackle in 30 minutes (including practice time). These questions were broadly aligned to the types found within the GL Verbal Assessment papers. From recollection my kids didn’t think there were too many of the “number” based verbal questions.

Year	Total Questions	Total Time
2014	80	60
2015	80	60

This table provides a summary of the number of Reasoning questions and time allowed for the 2014 and 2015 exams. 

Useful links:

The following article provides a really detailed overview of the number of children taking and passing the Kent Test.
http://www.kentadvice.co.uk/peters-blog/news-a-comments/item/865-full-analysis-of-kent-test-results.html