Inference

Working through the 11+ multiple-choice questions this year has been eye-opening - especially for someone who has largely taught students how to write essays.

At GCSE, the multiple-choice questions are seen as a gentle introduction to the English Language exams. Although AO1 assesses a student's ability to identify explicit and implicit information, in practice this question is usually very accessible, and the focus is mostly on retrieval. It is often described as a way for students who struggle with English to secure a few marks.

The 11+ is a complete contrast. Its inference questions are genuinely demanding, requiring students to read the question, the text and every possible answer with real care. They are full of traps designed to trip students up, and they are a rigorous test of a student's ability to identify both explicit and implicit information.

Writing an essay is undeniably a more complex, abstract and higher-order task.

Even so, it has been fascinating to see how a test for much younger students can, when it comes to inference, be more demanding than its GCSE counterpart.

Is there room to make these opening GCSE questions more demanding? And why do we ask less of students' inference skills - at least in regard to the multiple choice questions - as they get older?