Synonyms and antonyms are a huge part of the 11+, featuring in both English and verbal reasoning sections. There have been some years when my students have come out of a GL verbal reasoning paper (for Newstead Wood) and said that the exam was “basically all vocabulary questions”. Similarly, we know that the CEM exam always features a large number of synonym and antonym questions.
Besides vocabulary drills (which I do not recommend as they get very tedious very quickly), what can you do to help your child with these questions?
If your child’s core vocabulary is good, they’ll be more able to identify synonyms/antonyms on their own, without the need for learning long lists of words. Build core vocabulary by maintaining a word bank, systematically introducing new words and reviewing them regularly.
When matching synonyms and antonyms, you need to match words of the same type, i.e. adjectives with adjectives, verbs with verbs.
Children often get tripped up by matching words that are similar in meaning but not of the same type. For example, they match an adverb – like diligently – with an adjective – like careful.
Work on identifying word types so your child can check that they’ve matched like with like.
If your child has trouble with identifying word types, try using the words in a sentence instead.
Use the question word in a sentence, e.g. “I completed my painting diligently” and try to replace it with the potential synonym, e.g. “I completed my painting careful“.
If it doesn’t make grammatical sense then the words aren’t synonyms – and probably aren’t antonyms either, for that matter.
The Wordier Illustrated Workbook contains over 200 challenging words. The book can introduce your child to a whole range of 11 plus-level vocabulary to help them with synonyms, antonyms and comprehension.
Once your child has mastered their new vocabulary, it will be put the test within the book using cloze test and synonym activities.
Like all of the Wordier vocabulary materials, the Illustrated Workbook was developed and refined based on my work with hundreds of 11+ students.
Wordier helps children to improve their vocabulary with no fuss and in record time. View our full range of resources here.
Have you seen our YouTube channel yet? It contains tons of vocabulary tutorials, both long and short, and all for free!
