Multiple Choice and the Eleven Plus

On a certain day in each county children sit in rows in desks. Outside invigilators prowl up and down the rows.

There is a deep silence – broken only by the sound of pencils falling out of nerveless hands.

There are huge clocks to that the children can monitor the passing of time. Nervous eyes flick sporadically – and calculations are made: “Twenty questions, 12 minutes left. How can I do it? The questions are getting harder. I am becoming anxious now. What is mum going to say if I do not finish?”

. The papers are made by experts. There is a right answer and some wrong answers. All the eleven plus child has to do is recognise the right answer.

In some cases only the correct answers are counted.

In other multiple choice examination the wrong answers are subtracted from the right answers.

We warn the children of `red herrings’ in the answers.

If the question was:

Rearrange the letters of the word to make a word corresponding to the definition.

shore (a four legged animal)

A) horse
B) hotly
C) spider
D) horsu

We hope that the bright Eleven Plus child will choose `A’ for a horse.

If `C’ was chosen then perhaps a mark should be deducted because every child knows that a spider has more than four legs. Deducting marks if a child does not show ability and concentration could seem to be attractive to some.

Losing marks for unstructured guesses could help to focus attention.

A big problem with timed Eleven Plus Multiple choice questions is that a child could pass the examination in the morning when he or she is feeling fresh. The same examination could be failed in the evening when the `candidate’ is tired.

The Eleven Plus Nag

David Copperfield ran away after Mr Murdstone beat him.

Mr Murdstone had a `lithe and limber’ cane – which he twitched and swished when ever he could.

He thought that David needed to be more careful in his work.

“Mr. Murdstone! Sir! Don’t! Pray don’t beat me! I have tried to learn sir.”

“Can’t you, indeed, David? We’ll try that.” He had my head in a vice….

David used to be given questions which could possibly daunt some of our Eleven Plus candidates:

“If I go to a cheesemonger’s shop, and buy five thousand double-Gloucester cheeses at fourpence-halfpenny each…. “

David did not do all that well over the course of day and Mr Murdstone became more and more incensed with him. David bit his hand and was severely beaten.

David was then locked up for five days. He was subsequently taken from his mother and sent to school in London.

The Eleven Plus moral to this story? The more some children are berated for not achieving as much as their parents would like the more some children will feel inadequate and unready to learn.

The days of the switch and the stick are long gone – but pressure can also be put on by parents. It does not seem likely that any children working over these holidays will have resorted to biting their parents. If mums and dads have been bitten it is possible that their child was trying to tell them something.

“Mum, Dad, don’t nag me. I have tried to learn.”

Exciting Eleven Plus Work

The tutorial system was invented by Socrates. There is a theory about the so called `Socratic Method’ that it sprung from the character of the Greek people, because they loved arguing questioning and dealing with new ideas.

His premise was that it did not make much sense to throw lots of ideas and lessons at people. He thought that it was better to question. The other person had to answer the questions. Socrates did not want to question a person to find out what they did not know – he was attempting to help the person to find their own answers to his questions. His method was to engage a person in a conversation then criticise and discuss the answers and thus lead the person to a positive conclusion.

A number of parents would love to develop elements of the `Socratic’ approach with their own bright Eleven Plus children. Imagine being able to develop a strong relationship with your child that was not dominated by the restraints of a formal pen and paper examination. Imagine being able to spend an hour a week arguing, objecting, defending, counter attacking, discussing and helping your child towards some truth or other.

Surely a full blooded, and carefully prepared, discussion would be of more benefit to our Eleven Plus children than an argument about settling down to complete a full Eleven Plus paper. In an examination we need children who are able to think and reason.

An endless diet of papers – day after day, week after week must surely dull the minds of some children. Other children love the `comfort zone’ of papers. They know what is expected of them. The children know that provided they can reach around 70 – 80% on a paper they can keep their parents motivated and involved.

The next time the major publishers of Eleven Plus papers gather to talk their offerings, I hope they will spare a thought for a paper that demands thinking, discussing, arguing and finding a useful conclusion. It is very difficult to become truly animated about answering a question based on:

One of the (nests, fish, birds) (fell, drove, climbed) out of the (egg, nest, sea).

Eleven Plus Language

It was only a few years ago that your ten to eleven year old was four years old.

A typical exchange could have been:

Mother: `This cup is big.’
Child: `This cup is big.’

Mother: `Show me the cup that is big.’
Child: The child touches the big cup.

Mother: `Tell me about the cup.’
Child: `The cup is big’.

Of course now we are talking about bright pre Eleven Plus children – who at four years old would probably have embellished the conversation.

`Tell me about the cup.’

`The cup was given to the family by Auntie Jean. She said that the big cup was her favourite because she used to be given extra sugar. I like drinking from the big cup because it has so much sugar.’

It is very likely that children who do well in Eleven Plus examinations will have a big vocabulary. It is even more likely that the children will have demonstrated that vocabulary a very young age. Children with big vocabularies are likely to be able to read a wide number of books. The earlier the experience starts the better.

A number of us will recall the experiments of Hebb Williams on animal intelligence in 1946. In one of the tests a dog is brought into the room while hungry. After the dog had smelt and seen the bowl, the dog was able to watch the food put behind a screen at the opposite corner of the room.

Both the pet reared and the cage reared dogs went immediately to the spot where the food disappeared.

After some trials the food was placed in the opposite corner,

The cage reared dog went directly to the spot where the food had been placed originally. The pet reared dog went to the new spot.

For Eleven Plus children to do well their minds will need to be challenged and enriched over and over. If the diet of weekly and daily Eleven Plus selection papers goes on and on then it is possible that some children will stop thinking and simply react to the questions.

Some parents, however, will continue to see the need to offer their children stimulating conversations and prolonged arguments. (All in the cause of good Eleven Plus results!)

After all an argument can start as:

“Did.”
“Didn’t.”
“Did.”
“Didn’t.”

Careful direction could ease the argument into:

“Oh brother dear. I am simply horrified that you thought the answer to number 23 was 8. After all to find 10% of a number simply divide by ten.”

The Eleven Plus and Hard Work

On my way into the Pavilion Leisure Centre in Bromley on Saturday (yesterday) I saw this group of students enjoying a yoga class and thought, “That looks hard! It must feel fantastic!” I went on to think that the rewards of all that disciple and endeavour must be sublime.



If it was easy to pass the Eleven Plus examinations we would not need to reward the children with a grammar school education. It follows that as the examination is hard to pass we need to reward the grammar school children with the best possible education.

If the Eleven Plus examination was considered to be unimportant – and hard to pass - then it is likely that the examination would be dropped altogether.

We know that some children can pass Eleven Plus examinations with inherent ability – and without doing extra papers. Other children, with ability, need the additional benefit of extra training and help. This is our room at Hurst Road in Sidcup set up for last week's Eleven Plus course.



It seems likely that bright children, after grammar school and university, will be able to provide themselves with a livelihood. We also hope that they will also earn a high enough income to be able to have some elements of power and prestige.

A number of us will also hope that our children will look after us in `old age’. It is thus essential that our Eleven Plus children become powerful and prestigious – and earn enough money to be able keep us in our dotage.

Eleven Plus Messages

It is always interesting to think of what words parents could use while trying to motivate their children to do well in the Eleven Plus examinations.

“Well dear, just look back at all your ancestors. They all did well at school. Look at your Uncle, my brother, he is a judge. Your father went to university. You need to work hard too for the honour of the family.”

“No, you do need to read a lot more. We are all readers in our family. Wide reading shows that you have a good character and are well educated. Simply watch less T.V. and do a lot more reading of good books.”

“Your Auntie Cookie sings opera. She started singing very early – even younger that you are now. She worked hard at her singing – and look where she is now. Why can’t you try and be like her?”

“Your father’s brother was a famous swimmer. One day he swam across the Channel. It took him many hours but he never gave up. I never met him but your dad says he was a very nice man. You have to work hard and never give up. Then you will succeed.”

These are all rather lofty aspirations – your child may enjoy something a little more pragmatic.

“If you work hard you will be able to buy a nice car, wear fashionable clothes and go on designer holidays overseas.”

You would not, however, want to tell your children about a horrible man (Tacitus) who lived in Ancient Rome. He said: “To corrupt and be corrupted, is the fashion.”

Without putting your children under too much pressure, you want them to be, at the very least, decent, hard working and un-corruptible.

Mostly, however, you want your child to be normal. So a heartfelt plea to your child to work hard and be good is going to be far more valuable than using contrived and unrealistic motivational words. I am not sure that it will be all that useful to reminding your child about ancestors, character, hard work and not giving up. It is likely that your children will respond more positively to a simpler message.

New Eleven Plus Ideas

It is always interesting to see other people’s thoughts on education. I am not quite sure of the age of this blogger – but it seems that she has strong views on giving up her Friday nights for extra tuition.

The spelling and general syntax is fascinating to read. We can look back at the language of Shakespeare and Chaucer and see how much language has changed over the years. Perhaps the following passage is a glimpse into the present and the future.

hate that my fri nights are eaten up my tuition.. meaning no more fri gatherings till e end of yr when most prob i wont continue with e tuition. argh.. the sacrifice i suffered for money. lol. i kinda of like this new kid.. jus tt i feel tt 2 times a wk eats up too much of my time.. or maybe one of e days are on fri nites, tt's y. havin extra tuition on this sun.. requested by e kid.. she's clever.. jus tt she lacks confident.. and it's understandable when u r in a gd sch with all those fierce competition around us.

Our Eleven Plus children should make perfect sense of the sentiments expressed in the passage – as well as be able to enjoy the spelling and the language. All the children who have the privilege of being able to write an essay or a passage towards the Eleven Plus may enjoy an essay demanding:

Using modern text English, what are your views on the Eleven Plus? Make sure your plan covers:

Your thoughts and feelings on being examined to reach a grammar school.

How you react to competition.

Should you have to give up your Friday nights for extra study?

(Remember enriched text spelling and punctuation earn extra marks.)