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State primaries and maths for 11+

4 replies

undercoverelephant · 23/02/2010 09:53

Sorry if I'm covering old ground...

If your child is doing/has done the 11+, how much of the maths paper was achievable with only the maths taught at their state primary? If you prepared them (private tutor or otherwise) was it to go over covered ground, or to teach them new concepts?

I'm getting way ahead of myself as my son is only in Y2. So I'm not asking about paid tutoring, more about what DH and I would have to do to fill in the educational gaps, if there were any.

I had a look at a sample entrance paper for our local school and some of it is fairly straightforward - lots of arithmetic, fractions, understanding data in graph/chart form. But some of it was more challenging (averages, ratios, algebra) Is all of this covered at primary school level? I'm sure I don;t remember doing anything beyond times tables and some very basic fractions at primary school, although I concede that I had an appallingly bad maths education pre secondary level.

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deaddei · 23/02/2010 10:57

By the time they do the 11 plus in year 6, they will NOT have covered all the maths.
I would worry about it in year 5.

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gorionine · 23/02/2010 11:06

DD has done the 11+ quite a few things had not been coverd in school.

From top of my head : mean/median/range

basic "x" equation (sorry do not know technical term.

DD passed the math without tutoring this September (had only been 1 week into year 6) but by the skin of her teeth.

My advce if you cannot afford tutoring (we certainly couldn't) is to at the very least get some practice papers. I think you can get some in WHSmith that prepare them from age 8 (so I was told but have not verified for myself as it was already too late for DD)

We did a couple of 11+papers with her in the two weeks before the test though, and that is when we identified the subjects that needed work on.

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gorionine · 23/02/2010 11:08

sorry needed to add : do not wait until the last two weeks like we did. The begining of year five sounds all right to me.

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undercoverelephant · 23/02/2010 11:31

Thanks. I think Y5 was probably the time at which I expected a child to start prep work for the exam.

I think our primary has a maths extension group that operates from Y5 or maybe Y4, so I may investigate what they cover, if it looks as though DS is headed in that direction.

Strange, though, that an entrance exam for a state school - albeit selective - should cover things not touched on in the state sector! Sigh - tis the system, I suppose!