Would you pass the 11 plus?

[funky_house]

This is not that easy. Bear in mind, these were pre-decimal days, so its £sd, ( that should read, pounds, shillings and pence) and feet and inches.

Every parent knows the dilemmas involved in getting their children into the best school.

But do today's kids get a better chance than they would have had 50 years ago?

In The Schools Lottery, a two part documentary to be shown on BBC Two, seven celebrities go back to school and see how the chances they had under the old 11-plus system measure up to the opportunities available to 11-year-olds today.

To coincide with the programme we have selected some questions from an 11-plus paper set by the Glamorgan Education Authority in 1952.

Find out how you compare to yesteryear's 11-year-olds but remember, calculators are not allowed.

The answers are at the bottom of the page but no peeking until you've answered every question.

Question 1

Divide 5,408 by 26

Question 2 &≠163 = pound sign.

From the sum of £18. 16s. 9½d. and £38. 12s. 4¼d. take the difference between £53. 3s. 4¼d. and £39. 16s. 9½d.

Question 3

How many yards are there in 8 miles 6 furlongs 7 chains 14 yards?

Question 4

Multiply 2 tons 6 cwt. 3 qr. 17 lb. by 31.

Question 5

Work out this: 6.47 x 26.8 ÷ 0.67

Question 6

At a party one-sixth of those present were adults, four-ninths of those present were girls, and the remaining 42 were boys. How many were at the party?

Question 7

An oblong card measuring 1 foot 9 inches by 7 inches was completely covered by 6d. Saving Stamps which each measured 7/8 inches by ¾ inches. What was the value of the stamps on the card?

Question 8

A man bought 216 dozen oranges from one grower, 496 score from a second grower and 3,472 oranges from a third. He packed them in boxes each holding a gross. How many boxes did he fill?

Question 9

Coal costs £4. 15s. a ton and an electric fire costs 2½d. an hour to run. If it took 1½ cwt. of coal or 40 hours use of the electric fire to heat a room, how much would be saved by using the cheaper form of heating?

Question 10

A cyclist begins a journey at 9.30am and finishes it at 2pm the same day. Until 11.15am he rode at 10 miles an hour. He then rested for half an hour and afterwards cycled the rest of the journey at 12 miles an hour. How many miles did he travel altogether?

Question 11

Five oblong blocks of granite placed on top of one another and each of a different weight formed the base of a monument. If each block is half the weight of the block below it, and the total weight of the five blocks is 225 lb. less than a ton, what is the weight, in pounds, of the bottom block?

Question 12

Rewrite the following passage, putting in punctuation marks and capital letters where you think they should be:

john and mary were walking in Cardiff they met their friend mrs jones she took them to smiths shop john said lets buy a present for father.

Question 13

Give one word for the groups of words underlined in the following sentences. (You need not write out the whole sentence.)

That building has been in ruins for over a hundred years.

We go to the seaside once every year.

The caravan halted at the fertile place in the desert.

She wore a dress that did not cost much.

The boy pretended that he had hurt himself and started to walk as if he were lame.

Question 14

These two sentences - "Mary's uncle was a stout, elderly gentleman"; "She had never see him" may be joined together as follows: "Mary's uncle, whom she had never seen, was a stout elderly gentleman."

Now join the following pairs of sentences. (One sentence for each pair.) Do not use the word "and":

The coracles are very light.

They have a wicker frame.

We reached the open sea.

We put up the sail.

Antonio was a Venetian merchant.

He borrowed some money from Shylock.

It was snowing.

We did not stay indoors.

Hurry up!

You wish to be late.

1. 208

2. £44.2s 7d (20s = £1; 12d = 1s)

3. 15,568 (1 mile = 1760 yards; 1 furlong = 220 yards; 1 chain = 22 yards)

4. 72 tons 13cwt 3qr 23lb. (1 ton = 2240 lb; 1 cwt = 112 lb; 1 qr = 28 lb)

5. 258.8

6. 108

7. £5 12s.

8. 111

9. 14 1/2d cheaper using coal

10. 44 1/2 miles

11. 1040 lb.

12. John and Mary were walking in Cardiff. They met their friend Mrs. Jones. She took them to Smith's shop. John said "Let's buy a present for father."

13. (i) century (ii) annually (iii) oasis (iv) cheap (v) limp

14. (i) The coracles, which have a wicker frame, are very light.

(ii) Having reached the open sea, we put up the sail.

(iii) Antonio was a Venetian merchant who borrowed some money from Shylock.

(iv) It was snowing but we did not stay indoors.

(v) If you do not wish to be late, hurry up!

:shock: :cry:

[Stramash]

If it takes two men four days to fill a bath using a cup, how long does it take them to walk a fortnight??

:twisted:

[pinkcandygirl]

phewww :oops:

[Niranahm]

Certainly its a lot hard with the typos, corrupted symbols and missing underlines!

Fairly straightforward, except that I needed Google to check furlongs, old pounds/pence and cwt. (which are no longer used, so fair enough to reference the conversions)

I managed to guess which words were underlined without the underlines.

It's interesting to notice how many questions are basically mental arithmetic. with calculators and tools, that is skill which not really needed.

If you tested 11 year olds and 41 year olds on who can quickly and accurately used the Internet for reference, I wonder which group would come out on top?

[funky_house]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4804000/4804962.stm

Niranahm... above is the address, so you can see it without the typos.

The thing is to do it without a calculator, or the internet. OK. Today, a lot of people won't understand the old pre- decimal measurements. Even I have difficulty remembering them. (That makes me sound old) :-)

The currency changeover was 1971, I think.

As I recall, it was an examination that one had to pass, in order to gain a place at a grammar school.

I went to a grammar school, but I never had to pass the 11 plus, as it was no longer a requirement by then. Thank God.

[English_Bob]

Would I pass the 11+?... no

The language questions were simple, but the mental arithmetic was beyond me... just as it was in high school.

Emo Phillips.... "A computer once beat me at chess........ but I kicked its ass at kick-boxing."

[narak_mai]

Maybe county dependent, as I took it in 1991....

...and failed :evil:

[FarangFarang]

Maybe county dependent, as I took it in 1991....

...and failed :evil:

I would still fail today :-)

[kaunitz]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4804000/4804962.stm

Niranahm... above is the address, so you can see it without the typos.

The thing is to do it without a calculator, or the internet. OK. Today, a lot of people won't understand the old pre- decimal measurements. Even I have difficulty remembering them. (That makes me sound old) :-)

The currency changeover was 1971, I think.

As I recall, it was an examination that one had to pass, in order to gain a place at a grammar school.

I went to a grammar school, but I never had to pass the 11 plus, as it was no longer a requirement by then. Thank God.

Without calculator, I think that most of people younger than 35 or so would even fail the 1/6+4/9 question as pupils are too used to calculators from about that time on (25 years ago). We got our first calculator at school when I was 16, so I had to calculate for some 10 years only "on foot", something that gives you training. This is why I could answer this question without any problems (as one of the very few questions I could answer - well, furlongs, yards etc. never have been our measurements).

[FarangFarang]

Without calculator, I think that most of people younger than 35 or so would even fail the 1/6+4/9 question as pupils are too used to calculators from about that time on (25 years ago). We got our first calculator at school when I was 16, so I had to calculate for some 10 years only "on foot", something that gives you training. This is why I could answer this question without any problems (as one of the very few questions I could answer - well, furlongs, yards etc. never have been our measurements).

1/6 + 4/9 was easy enough but I used to trade stocks when everything was quoted in fractions (i.e. IBM 123 5/8) so I'm somewhat used to doing the math for fractions.

[kaunitz]

1/6 + 4/9 was easy enough but I used to trade stocks when everything was quoted in fractions (i.e. IBM 123 5/8) so I'm somewhat used to doing the math for fractions.

Yep, that's the training! Once you get used to it, it's not a miracle at all anymore!

[Admin_2]

They had a bit of that BBC documentary on "Waiting for Superman." Awesome documentaries.