English Practice Exercises 13+ Practice Exercises for Common Entrance Preparation

Amanda Alexander and Rachel Gee have extensive experience in the teaching and managing of English in prep schools, most recently running the English Department at Danes Hill Preparatory School in Surrey. Their aim is to promote excellent literacy skills to enable confident access of the whole curriculum and in forming Lex Education they continue to support teachers and parents and help children to read and write with understanding and rigour.

About the ISEB English 13+ syllabus and the Common Entrance Examination at 13+ PAPER 1: READING SECTION A: NON-FICTION Diary Thura's Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq by Thura al-Windawi Speech The Love of a Dog by George Graham Vest from Speeches that Changed the World Travel Born Survivor by Bear Grylls Speech The Need for Adventure adapted from the Patrick Hardy Lecture given by Anthony Horowitz, November 2005 Travel Morocco by Andrew Gilchrist from The Guardian, Saturday10th November 2001 Journalistic Queuing by Christopher Middleton from The Daily Telegraph, 26th September 2005 Review The first review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by Leo Lewis from Timesonline, 28th June 2007 Autobiography Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela Journalistic A Giant Problem by Martin Hickman from The Independent, 27th February 2006 Autobiography As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee SECTION B: POETRY Space Shot by Gareth Owen Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker To Sleep by William Wordsworth Clown by Phoebe Hesketh Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes Toad by Norman MacCaig An Old Woman by R S Thomas Space Invaders by Owen Sheers The Hero by Siegfried Sassoon The Lake by Roger McGough PAPER 2: WRITING SECTION A: STUDIED LITERATURE Theme: Relationships Theme: Conflict Theme: Heroes and Heroines SECTION B: WRITING TASKS Appendix Additional 'Relationship' questions for Studied Literature