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Monday, September 24, 2007

The Wonder of Eleven Plus

I started thinking today about what information children might need in the eleven plus examinations. I suppose they may need to know some important facts:

Sound travels 1.6 km in 5 seconds.
1 litre of water weighs 1 kg.

Then I wondered if they needed to know about any currencies:

India uses the rupee
South Africa uses the rand.

Then we could look at languages:

Iranians speak Persian
The Welsh speak English and Cymric.

Naturally my thoughts went to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World:

Pyramids
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Tomb of Mausolus
The Temple of Diana
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Statue of Zeus
The Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria.

So then what are the seven wonders of the Eleven Plus examinations?

This year parents have far more access to free downloadable eleven plus papers.
The examinations are not supposed to test facts (So all the above information is relatively worthless.)
Parents are just as anxious now about the eleven plus as they were earlier in the year.
Some children will love doing examinations and others will hate every second.
Teachers will tell parents that their children are `doing fine’ and are `border line’.
Your children will come out of the examination and tell you that they did their best.
Regardless of results you will throw a really big `post eleven plus party’.

If you think of any other wonders please let me know.

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