Eleven plus

Yes, I remember the day very clearly, and most of the questions.
I also remember the day when the result arrived in the post. My parents were delighted that I passed and then had high expectations of me. I proved to be a big disappointment.

We had to go to another school to take the 11+. I had a flask with something to drink in it but when we had a break I discovered the flask had been broken! I hadn’t dropped it so presumably this was a deliberate act by someone. We had maths, what is today called non verbal reasoning and English tests, and also had to write an essay. I passed and have no idea how my parents afforded the uniform which had to be bought from Harrods!
Two of my grandchildren live in an area where the 11+ is still taken. The eldest passed last year but chose to go to a single sex non grammar school where she is very happy in the grammar stream. A lot of her classmates at her primary school were being tutored from year 4 but they didn’t all pass.

I remember walking home afterwards and my friends were saying what their answers were. I was horrified as my answers were different. As it was, none of us passed. There was a scandal years later when it came to light that girls had marks taken off them.

My parents were pleased and proud when I passed, but distinctly remember Dad saying, “Well, you’ve been top at ….school, but when you get to Grammar School, everybody will have been ‘top’, so it will be different”.

Very true.

They never wanted us to get ‘too big for our boots’.

I must have taken my 11+ in 1963 but I also don’t remember very much about it. I certainly didn’t want to go to the secondary school - snobbery got me to the grammar school with my mates. My brother failed and went to the local secondary school. Saying that though I hated the grammar school - it was too academic for me - I wanted to be an artist. Ended up getting expelled at 15 and my dear brother went on to get 7 o’levels. I did go on to university in later life and don’t regret a thing. Still can’t make up my mind whether 11+ was a good thing or not.

I think it was 1947 I did the 11+ ,I was just 10 , but we had moved from Glasgow to Northern Ireland and the nuns said I should have a go ,
We went to the school accross town and I remember the classroom looked very like any other school, I just did the one paper , missed the next being in hospital with appendicitis, I must have done ok in the one paper
I remember having to read a passage and answer questions about it , this passage was a source of debate after , seems it was too difficult , but when asked I said that I just guessed the answers from the story !
To add insult to injury , I was despatched back to Scotland to convalesce at Grannies house , I was sopeely wally that she wouldn’t let me go home by myself , so I had to wait till she and Granda were coming to Ireland for their annual holiday , so I was a week late starting grammar school ,
I hated it !

As I said previously, I passed the 11+, and was in a two language stream at the ‘ grammar ‘ school, so must have performed fairly well. I had no way of knowing in primary school how ‘able’ a pupil I was, but later in life, I realised that I must have been. On my last day of primary school, as I left the class, clutching the book which was the first prize of that year, my teacher told me that I didn’t deserve it as I hadn’t had to work for it! Locking back later I thought that was mean spirited of her. However, she was right, as, once in the senior school, work was required, and I wasn’t always invested in it.

I always wished I could have taken an 11 plus exam. I lived in the first county to go fully comprehensive and missed taking the exam by two years.

Three from my primary school sat exams and then went to private schools. The other 42 went to our nearest secondary school. It just happened to be the old grammar school. Most of the staff were the existing grammar school staff.

In the first week we all sat exams and were then put into forms. Our form teacher told those of us in 1C that we passed our exams. Forms 1A, 1B, and 1C were the grammar forms so we would get to do latin. 1D was the first form secondary modern and they would get to do latin for the first year in case anyone moved up a form.

I managed to work my up to A2 by the start of the second year. So I suppose I did get a grammar school education. I did have friends from both the grammar and the modern forms so maybe going comprehensive was a good thing.

I don't remember anything about taking the exam so I obviously wasn't too traumatised by it 😁 I don't even remember any discussion about it. I do remember my parents getting the letter saying I had passed it and was going to the grammar school. My brothers went to the Secondary Modern nearby.

My Dad gave me a hug and said 'well done'.

My mother said 'you needn't think you're better than anyone else just because you're going to a posh school', and tried to talk my Dad out of sending me there because of the expense of the uniforms. Fortunately for me my Dad put his foot down for once.

Some of the local grammar school girls had to walk past the secondary modern school on their way home.

Part of the grammar school uniform was a hat which looked like a pair of inverted navy bloomers with the school badge sewn on the front.

When the grammar school girls appeared a group of sec mod girls used shout "Here come the martians, got any mars bars" or "Knickers for a hat".

I remember an iq type of test, arithmetic and language.
When I got home, I was presented with a duffle coat. If I remember, they were a new fashion, and I had been fancying one. It wasn’t the colour I’d have chosen, but I was still delighted. The results were sent to the house during the Easter holidays, while my mother, myself and two cousins were staying with relatives on the w coast of Scotland ( we were from eastern Scotland ). My aunt had a phone, so one of my cousin’s dad went to the local phone box and called us to say that all three of us had passed, and had been allocated places at the senior secondary schools of our choice. Great jubilation.

Remember it vividly; we sat in the upper hall of our primary school, and I recall the smell of the polish on the parquet floor. Maths always a fearful challenge, English flowed easily, and there were some questions which I believe are now called 'lateral thinking'. I did pass, along with quite a few contemporaries, and as we left school with our brown envelopes, one child said 'Here come the scholars'. That has stayed with me - the other children must have felt second best.

We went to a school in a nearby town to sit the exam. I remember that we had to go across the yard and upstairs to have our lunch. I had been having special coaching sessions with the headmaster in mental arithmetic because that was my weakest subject. Maths was never my strong point. I failed my maths gce twice! Also after special coaching sessions with the Grammar School head!

@BridgetPark
When I was sitting the 11+ maths exam, my headmaster was also patrolling the aisles. My desk was in front of the teacher’s desk where he returned to sit. I noticed he had a blank exam paper in his hand and was pointing to a certain question. It was definitely for my benefit. I looked back through paper and found that I had mistakenly answered the opposite of what the question asked - instead of saying how many there were, I’d answered how many weren’t. It was a simple mistake. I changed my answer.
I passed. I have NEVER told anyone what he’d done!!!!!

I don't remember much about the day except being more confident with the English test rather than the Maths. As a result I did pass the Eleven Plus in English and failed in maths. This meant joining a Secondary Modern school and not a Grammar. That said, we were taught ballroom dancing at my new school and I went on to gain medals for my junior dancing years so I have no complaints! Now retired, my love of English remains and several of my short stories have been published by an American publisher and I've self-published two books on Amazon. Over the years my maths has improved out of necessity!

I don't even remember taking it, but I did. I failed mine but went onto do a Masters when I was older.
Got a good bunch of O levels at my Secondary school, I did much better than some of my old school friends who went to Grammar school.
During my career I took a further Education qualification, as I had to teach and assess at Degree level. During my Education Phycology module we was told that the 11plus was eventually seen as a failure of assessment, as the Girls marks were loaded, the boys didn't have to score as high as the Girls to pass. I was told 11 isn't the right age to segregate into different schools and unfair on lots of girls.
Not a fan of Sat's either.
Thankfully now Comprehensive schools adjust all the time (or should).

Indigo8

knspol

JackyB - I'm amazed you can remember such detail, I wouldn't have a clue what day or date I sat my 11 plus exam or any of the many that followed.
The only thing I remember about it is being taken into a classroom, told where we were going to sit and then told to go and play for a while until the exam was to start. I remember this because i had dreadful stomach ache which disappeared the minute we were let out to play and realised for the first time that I was nervous.

I am also amazed at the detail with which people who sat the exam, often over half a century ago, can remember the day.

Perhaps, as most GNs seem to have passed, often with flying colours, the day stands out for them and is remembered proudly and fondly.

No, it was just the pudding I remembered; we took the scholarship, as it was called, at the Girls' Secondary Modern school so I never got to taste that pudding again.

knspol

JackyB - I'm amazed you can remember such detail, I wouldn't have a clue what day or date I sat my 11 plus exam or any of the many that followed.
The only thing I remember about it is being taken into a classroom, told where we were going to sit and then told to go and play for a while until the exam was to start. I remember this because i had dreadful stomach ache which disappeared the minute we were let out to play and realised for the first time that I was nervous.

I am also amazed at the detail with which people who sat the exam, often over half a century ago, can remember the day.

Perhaps, as most GNs seem to have passed, often with flying colours, the day stands out for them and is remembered proudly and fondly.

I went to a small village school and don't actually remember taking the exam, but I do remember my name being called out in class as one who had passed. My brother and sister also passed.. I can remember the 6 mile journey to school though, on the segregated school buses and the cliques that formed on them.. The only time we mixed with the Boy's school was for a sixth form dance and obviously at the bus station..

I took my 11 plus on my 11th birthday in 1959. I remember wring a short story, as well as English comprehension,which was about understanding English grammar, parts of speech etc. There was a Maths paper, adding up, taking away, division and multiplication and also about fractions, percentages and the names of different parts of numbers, i.e integers and such like. There was also a paper on problems of shapes, rather like the Mensa.

It was 1955 when I took what was then called "the scholarship". It was English in the morning then maths and what must have been intelligence tests after lunch. We were informed by the headmaster, a Mr Clift, who was fairly terrifying. Four had passed and two got halfway. One lad passed maths and I had passed English. Mr Clift laughed and remarked that we could perhaps get a place between us.

I don't remember a thing about the actual 11plus exam, but my mother, a primary school teacher got quite upset about parents who promised their child a reward if the 'passed'. She said it wasn't fair on the child because no amount of 'rewards' would enable a child to pass if they didn't have the ability to do so and they would just feel like failure.

Being a teacher she also knew the deadly secret which was that girls always did better over all than boys on the exam but the numbers of each that passed had to be even, so some boys got into grammar school on a lower mark than the girls and some girls with better marks were excluded because the girl's 'quota' had been filled.

It saddens me that that some of you say that not passing made you feel a failure, sometimes for a long time. You more than likely weren't...🙁

JackyB - I'm amazed you can remember such detail, I wouldn't have a clue what day or date I sat my 11 plus exam or any of the many that followed.
The only thing I remember about it is being taken into a classroom, told where we were going to sit and then told to go and play for a while until the exam was to start. I remember this because i had dreadful stomach ache which disappeared the minute we were let out to play and realised for the first time that I was nervous.

I passed to go to the grammar school, but I didn’t want to go as none of my friends had passed. Needless to say, I was made to go and made new friends.

I sat and passed the 11+ a couple of ninths before my 11th birthday. The letter arrived through the post. My parents were delighted, I was the first in the wider family to pass. As many have said it was a major struggle for my parents to buy the very strictly policed uniform. I went off with my best friend full of nerves which didn’t leave me for the whole time. Not a natural academic I often wonder if I’d have been happier and less stressed at the local, very supportive, comprehensive school.