My son recently sat his Bexley, Kent and St Olave’s 11+ tests. I have written many articles about the 11+, but I thought it’d be interesting to read from a child’s perspective what it is like to sit the 11 plus.
The article below was written by my son, with minimal editing.
My name is Yusuf and I am 10 years old. My article is about sitting the 11+ test.
I’ll start by talking about the night before the test because it is really important; the eating, sleeping and general preparation all play a part in the 11+ test, no matter how small it might be. The night before the test, when I was eating dinner, it felt like my intestines were automatically pumping chewed up food back onto my plate- that’s how nervous I was. I didn’t have an appetite at all. If I didn’t pass the 11+, I felt that future opportunities would be taken away from me.
After dinner, mummy gave me one more 11+ mock test, and I’ll be honest, I think that mocks are pretty important. I felt my heart hammering my chest the night before the test, and that feeling was controlling me. My heart was beating fast but I also felt pure fear strangling me.
Because I am an asthmatic child, my daddy reminded me to pack my asthma pump and daddy bought a clear pencil case beforehand (opaque pencil cases are not allowed). That night, I was tossing and turning and didn’t sleep very well, and to make things worse, the night was simply refusing to pass.
When the morning finally came, I brushed my teeth and ate my porridge ( which is what I normally eat ) and then mummy dropped me off at my school, where the Bexley test was held. We did the test straight after the register. Although just thinking about the test sent shivers down my spine, the reality was that the test turned out to be easy and me and my friends were confident that we would pass. It felt good knowing that most of the things I had prepared for came up, and in hindsight, there was no need to feel so much pressure.
There were two papers: English and VR, and Maths and NVR. Maths and NVR came first. The Maths section was pretty easy but for the NVR paper, I took too much time and wished I had more time. In the next paper, I made up for my mishap as I comfortably strode through the questions.
The rest of the school day went like a blur, but as soon as I left school, we celebrated my effort with a celebratory meal at a restaurant. The next month was an anxious wait, but on Tuesday 14th of October, I received some phenomenal news: I had not only passed but also found out I was one of the top 180 students, which meant I got guaranteed admission to my first choice grammar school.
That’s my 11+ story and I hope you pass, too.
Yusuf, Year 6.
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