Where Are most mistakes made in 11 Plus Verbal Reasoning exams?

It seems to many parents that their children sometimes struggle for time in Verbal Reasoning, actually in most cases speed isn’t the issue it is a lack of core skills.

Put brutally children spend far too long scratching their heads trying to think of synonyms or opposites or compound words illustrating the weakness of their vocabulary, they then race to catch up and of course make the odd silly mistake along the way.

Children who have been introduced to the topic properly rarely have a problem with their technique, most can work quickly enough. Attention to detail sometimes needs work but inevitably this becomes better once additional focus is applied.

Really the largest number of mistakes made are those which illustrate a weakness in vocabulary.

If you were to break it down scientifically you’d find over 50% of mistakes are made on vocabulary based questions which involve little technique (synonyms, opposites, compound words).

To improve in VR (GL or CEM) and make fewer mistakes children need to work on their core skills. Doing test paper after test paper wont help.