DS1 (9) will take 11+ in a year's time, and DS2 (7) in two years.
So I sat both kids down with a GL eleven plus maths paper and both kids sat for 50 minutes doing the questions. DS1 did 28 questions getting 25 right and DS2 did 22, getting 20 right. There are 50 questions in a paper though! Neither kid has ever done anything like this, so their exam technique is rubbish (in particular DS2 spent 15 minutes on a question he clearly didn't understand given he's only just finished y3 and this was for 11 yo) - neither of them skipped the hard questions or used the rough paper I'd given them.
There are a few voices on mn that echo the "kids don't need any preparation, the ones that get tutored struggle through secondary, it's morally wrong to tutor etc etc." I wasn't planning to send them to a paid tutor, but to try to help them prepare myself. Now I've realised there's a pretty steep wall to climb, particularly for DS1 as he only has a year. It could be down to exam technique, but getting from a 50% success rate to a 90% they'll need does seem a bit insurmountable. Yet they're not struggling at school at all, and I'd have thought they'd have a good shot at grammar school entrance.
So can I have some tips on how to get the kids to speed up, and what I can do to help them on exam technique? Is it possible to make the progress DS1 will need in a year, and is it worth getting a tutor rather than my amateur approach?
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DIY eleven plus prep - not sure how to tackle this
31 replies
howtodrainyourflagon · 20/07/2015 18:35
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