vindication!

[tamaranth]

At the age of 11 I was foiled: my parents wouldn't let me take the 11+, they thought it was elitist. (Fast-forward through 5 yrs of comprehensive hell.)

11+ on BBC website: how do you score?

"Top of the class!You've scored 15 out of 15."
(in, er, 5:03 minutes rather than 10. Not sure what this proves but I am pleased with my brain.)

Comments

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Proves nothing, of course -- no attempt to test humanities, language skills, sciences...

That doesn't mean it proves nothing: it means it's a test of logical / reasoning ability rather than knowledge and facts. And one's knowledge, fact-retention, comprehension do change markedly over the course of a life.

I'm occasionally unnerved by the level of general knowledge expected of mid-C20 schoolchildren, but I wouldn't expect the 11+ to include questions that would probably be easier for an older age-group. Isn't it supposed to be about potential?