11+ preparation and substitution

June 27, 2024•2 min read

Substitution is literally just a case of swapping letters for numbers

I wasn’t sure what to write this morning, so I researched commonly asked questions about the 11+ as inspiration.

What is the 11+ exam and when is it, appeared to be two of the most commonly asked questions.

So, the 11+ exam is an exam that is available to children in some counties around the UK, which providing they pass will give them access to the grammar school system. It is held in September, within weeks of the schools returning from the summer break.

As with most exams, I would suggest that slow and steady wins the race.

It is a huge commitment by you and your child. One of the things I would do (I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before for the 11+ or just GCSE’s), is make a note of 1 thing you have done each day to help you to pass the exam. So, for example, it maybe nothing more than: I have read 10 pages of a book to help me to improve my spellings, grammar, and vocabulary.

Or I wasn’t sure what substitution was, so I looked it up and I now know that it is when you replace a letter in maths with a numerical number. I think I understand it but will do some practice to make sure that I do.

I hadn’t intended to write this, but Substitution is probably easier than it sounds.

They will give you a question containing letters, then they will give you a value for each of the letters.

An example might include: ab

a = 2 b = 4 c= -8

When 2 letters are positioned next to each other like this, we simply multiply them together.

So, knowing that a is worth 2, and b is worth 4, the question we need to answer is: ab = 2x4 =8

We can then make our example slightly harder by adding 16, so ab+16 a = 2 b = 4 c= -8 because the letters have the same values as before, we know that ab =2x4=8 So, ab+16 will simply be 8+16 = 24

We can then make this example slightly harder by calculating, ab + 16 2c a = 2 b = 4 c= -8

When a question is presented with the first part drawn on top of another part of the question with a line between, we divide.

How many times does the bottom number go in to the top number.

So, if we once again break this down into steps:

We already know that: ab+16 = axb+16 = 2x4+16 = 8+16= 24

The next part that we need to look at is 2c. c is -8, so we’d need to multiply 2 by ( -8) = 2x-8 = -16

So, now our question is 24 -8 24 divided by -8 = -1.5

That’s it. It’s literally just a case of swapping letters for numbers.

Dawn Strachan

For the past 20+ years I have been a firm believer that learning should be an enjoyable experience. I appreciate that traditionally education has revolved around worksheets, textbooks, listening to teachers. But a grounding in early years and working with children who had a variety of learning styles from I learned that it is an individual activity that is personal to all of us. We don’t all learn in the same way. Our influences, our experiences, our capabilities all influence how we retain information. But through it all, I believe that if we can make it enjoyable and engaging, they will want to participate. With participation comes practice which in turn boosts skill and confidence. With an increase in skill and confidence comes a willingness to have a go. This in turn leads to more practice which leads to a positive spiral of success. The moral, we need to make learning fun, engaging, use a range of techniques.

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