CEM 11 Plus English Exam

CEM are a testing body which has attempted to muddy the waters in terms of traditional 11 Plus subjects. CEM have no specific English exam choosing instead to call it Verbal Reasoning. In reality though the CEM Verbal Reasoning Test is an English exam. It can/will/has contained the following elements:

• A standard comprehension exercise
• A CLOZE comprehension (a piece of text with missing letters to be filled in, or one word from three or four to be chosen as correct)
• A jumbled sentence exercise (putting words in the right order)
• An opposites/synonyms section
• A vocabulary test

In other words while CEM call their literacy test ‘verbal reasoning’ in fact it should be treated like an English paper. Without very solid core English skills pupils will not do well.

While it is useful to do some familiarisation on the type of questions which are likely to come up (see above), CEM can vary this at any time.

As an example of the variety CEM could introduce here are two examples:

–  CEM 11 Plus English/VR  exams have used ‘jumbled sentences’, they could just as easily change this to ‘jumbled paragraphs’ – where the paragraphs of a story are mixed up and need to be put in the right order.

– CEM 11 Plus English/VR exams do not currently contain grammar, punctuation and spelling tests but they have done previously. These could be introduced without warning.

If you are preparing at home then go through to our CEM 11 Plus preparation page for some guidance on what to do when.