11 plus sample essays
We pride ourselves on the detailed feedback we give to pupils on their creative writing papers. At school, teachers simply do not have the time to go over a pupil's work with such attention to detail. We receive very positive comments from parents and pupils as to how helpful our creative writing paper is. Our creative writing expert is Karen Francis.
How to prepare for Creative Writing
M y advice for 11 plus stories in this article applies just as well to 8 plus, 13 plus or GCSE … in fact, although I have written with 11 plus creative writing in mind, my suggestions should be relevant at any level. Please write a comment if you do! The creative writing materials offered by 11 Plus Lifeline teach students to use all the techniques explained on this page.
Every writing paper has full example answers, as well as detailed step-by-step discussions, marking guidelines and story-planning advice. Papers are structured to help students develop high-level skills — and just as importantly, to enjoy themselves!
Please include attribution to rsleducational. Keep this simple for now. Next, jot down a few notes about your main character see point 3. What is interesting about them? Try to imagine them sitting in the place next to you. See them clearly in your mind.
Who are they, really? Now note down some ideas for how you will get to the main event. Finally, write a few thoughts about what will happen after the event: why does it matter, and — above all else — how does it affect your characters?
The reason I suggest this order of planning is that when you only have a short time to write, there are two important things which will hold your story together: the main event what it is about and your central character who gives us a reason to care.
Everything else should be very simple, allowing you to focus on describing beautifully. As they walked through the forest a tree fell and nearly crushed them.
That was close , thought Claudia. But if you forget to fully describe big events, such as a tree almost killing your characters, the effect is very peculiar. It implies that a near-death experience is no more interesting than reading a map! This is often a problem in exam stories with too much action, or with too many plot events in general.
Spend the rest of your time building up to it and showing its after-effects. If you feel really confident, you might manage to develop two characters: a brother and sister, for example.
But in the exam itself, ask yourself: Is it worth the risk? Make your main character really interesting, and only refer to others in passing. However, there are risks, demonstrated by the example above! Describe how people move around between saying things, the expressions on their faces, and so on:. Examiners are likely to expect that a new speaker begins on a new line, if somebody else has already spoken in the paragraph. Look at this way of writing the example at the top, and think about where a sentence should begin a new line :.
Robert was He lived in a small flat with his cat and his wife. One day, he decided to go for a walk to the shops. It was a cloudy day. It was the middle of February and it was a bit cold but not cold enough for a scarf. The road was in need of some repairs. This way you waste a paragraph, when you might only have time for four or five in your whole story. Anything that really matters about your characters can be mentioned along the way. In creative writing for 11 plus exams, everything else can be left out.
We have to work it out from what they do — and sometimes from what they say, although this can be very misleading! It also helps to get us — the readers — involved in the story by making us do some thinking for ourselves! Have a go at re-writing the following paragraph to make it more interesting.
You can change things around as much as you like. I admit: this is the sort of thing which you will sometimes read in a book. However, it is a missed opportunity to bring a character to life. In a time-limited plus exam story, you need to take advantage of such moments. Instead, there are some strong clues which steer you towards a particular idea about what she thinks and how she feels: but you still have to decide for yourself.
How does my answer compare to your approach? The sky was clear, except for a few clouds like wisps of cigar smoke. This is good writing. Furthermore, the narrator seems to be looking around constantly, noticing everything.
Is this normal behaviour? I smelt something like old sick; then I remembered the bag of bacon sandwiches crumpled on the seat next to me. Using a range of senses, as I discussed in point 7 , is really, really important. But how can you come up with surprising, powerful descriptions — descriptions to make the marker stop ticking your work for a second, raise their eyebrows and smile? This is much more interesting.
I never considered it before, but you really do hear a sound when ice thaws quickly. The reader can work out that the night has been exceptionally cold, but also that the temperature is now rising quickly.
Does this mean that Donald wrote savagely and meaninglessly, like a wild animal with a pencil jammed between its claws? This sort of thing is not really the fault of a young writer, who after all is hopefully! The result of this, for most children, is a succession of poorly chosen descriptive tricks, which add nothing. To me, this means allowing the reader to imagine the situation fully, and helping them care what happens. Perhaps he was feeling annoyed, given that it might interrupt his favourite TV show.
So I ask myself: What moves to and fro constantly, performing a task in an unimaginative way? Donald hunched over the page, his arm jerking to and fro with the quick, regular movements of a factory robot. What students need is a different sort of checklist, to help them make the rest of their writing interesting. I hope this article will give you some ideas!
Or was she …? If you write in a way that builds suspense by making me interested in the characters and events in the story — while keeping some important information hidden from me, just out of sight — this will speak for itself. It might give you some useful ideas. You can turn on subtitles by clicking the three dots or the subtitles symbol in the bottom-right corner of the video. You can also choose to watch in fullscreen mode.
If you found these story writing tips useful or if you have a question, please leave a comment below! Every practice paper has full example solutions, with a detailed discussion and explanation for every question — like being taught by an excellent private tutor.
Watch your first free plus video straight away. I'll also send you some useful information about RSL Educational resources and more advice for exam preparation. First Name. How can I encourage that? Many of my suggestions are in the article above. If this is useful, then 11 Plus Lifeline offers many further resources.
I would not think too much about results, if by that you mean percentage scores, when children are 6 or so and developing their writing. I would focus on their enjoyment and on encouraging them to explore their imagination, creating interestingly described characters and environments. However, it is very important to encourage the development of accurate and clear English from an early stage.
Creative writing is a good opportunity to uncover and address problems. I found this very useful and straightforward, and also very funny… The tips will take me flying in my writing! Thanks Lily-Grace. I thought that this was a brilliant summary. Thank you very much. Engaging and thoughtful. Very much appreciated. Very useful tips! I like the way you have broken down the advice into bite-sized chunks! Thanks Robert.
Great tips, thanks Robert. Do you have tips on non fictional writing as well? My child struggles with writing on everyday things that she deems uninteresting like describing everday things but is flying when writing on imaginary topics. Thanks in advance. Hi Tolu. I have some resources for less creative subject matter in 11 Plus Lifeline.
I think the best way to add interest to potentially unexciting things, like letters, is with examples.
There are some examples below of essay titles that have come up in past 11+ tests around the country to get you started. Examiners in different areas may have. Essay title: A Winter Garden by Harris Malik This essay was written by Harris for the Urmston Grammar 11 Plus exam in , and it earned him a pass.
January 31, by Femke Bolle. Previously, the paper looked like this. It contained a reading comprehension and then a story writing task that was usually based on the comprehension passage. Now the writing task has been split into two tasks: a creative writing exercise and a discursive essay.
Most senior independent schools require candidate pupils to write an essay as part of their selective entrance exams.
Our book on Passing Verbal Reasoning Tests book. Plus, our top Maths test tips.
Independent School Essay Writing
UKiset is an online exam used by many British independent schools as part of their entry process for international students. It is made up of three components:. English is not the first language of many candidates so the essay can be the most challenging part. But there are things that you can do and skills that you can practise that will help you to prepare. This guide will show you how.
11+ Mock Tests in Sutton
We hope that the advice on this page will help your and your child to break the task down into manageable pieces, and also provide you with some useful shortcuts. The advice given is particularly helpful for longer essays and for more challenging topics and tests. The essay test may be as little as 20 minutes or as long as 50 minutes, and may be factual or fiction. There is usually a choice of titles, but it is important to check the type of topics that have come up in the tests for each school in the past. Examiners in different areas may have different priorities. In some areas they will mainly be interested in the content of the work, rather than demanding good spelling or punctuation. In other areas accurate grammar, punctuation and spelling may be required as well. If your child does not excel at fiction writing and you know for certain that they will have a choice of factual or fiction topics, you could focus on developing their ability to write a persuasive factual essay rather than battling uphill with creative writing. The elements that need to be planned are:. In some areas the children are given 5 minutes specifically to plan their essay, but in other areas that time is included in the time allotted for the whole task, and speed is critical.
M y advice for 11 plus stories in this article applies just as well to 8 plus, 13 plus or GCSE … in fact, although I have written with 11 plus creative writing in mind, my suggestions should be relevant at any level.
I could write fantastic content about how great the Creative Writing Crash Course is — and it would be right! However, as a parent myself, I know that when it comes to our children, we want to make sure any product we buy for them will get the job done as painlessly as possible. The proof is always in the pudding. If you look through her second essay, you will notice that she took on the feedback and made the necessary changes.
11+ Essay Writing
Both types of task will examine your ability to plan, create and then write in a structured manner. Some entrance examinations, for selective schools, will assess the creative writing task only as part of a borderline check in the review process if you have fallen marginally short or only just passed the given pass mark for that entrance exam. There will be a specified time given for the writing task. The length of this will vary between schools. Ensure that you know what this is and keep an eye on your progress in order to be able to finish in time and include a check of your work. Never just start writing. Planning will help you to organise your thoughts and this will give your writing structure. It really does not need to take long but is always 5 minutes well spent. This planning time may form part of the whole time given to write or it may be an extra 5 minutes provided at the start before the writing is timed. Use a planning technique that works well for you e. Some people are naturally creative with words, story-lines etc. However, your imagination can be greatly improved by reading a variety of books.
*NEW* The Complete Guide to 11+ Writing
We recommend parents to practice these 11 plus exam papers with their child under time pressure. These 11Plus past papers include 11 plus style English comprehension and creative writing. Independent School English 11 Plus exams are very competitive and use ancient English text which is sometimes quite difficult to comprehend. The comprehension passage is followed by creative writing which many times is a continuation of the story. The questions at the end of the comprehension are very challenging so may take up a little longer time to solve. Ask your child to manage his time more effectively allowing more time for difficult comprehension questions. We are also providing answers to some of the 11 Plus Past Papers mentioned below. Until the following schools they were under Group 1. The names of the schools are mentioned below along with the past papers.
