11+ timing question

[mumof32015]

Hi,
My dd is taking the 11+ in September. we have the gl test papers, and she has done a couple of them and got really good scores. However she really struggles with timing, today she did a maths one and in 50 mins she answered 36 questions and only got about 3 wrong. My question is how do we help her speed up? She is very capable of passing, but the speed is really letting her down. Does anyone have any tips for us to help her with this, i would really appreciate your input. Thank you.

[Lenazayka]

Just practicing, practicing and again practicing. Use different providers, 10 minutes tests, online resources and mock exams.
To calm you down, my son did a 50 minutes test yesterday . Did it for 27 minutes, making 15 mistakes. Only one my look 👀 after the checking the work persuaded him to take back the test, spend another 5 minutes and 47/50. However, prior the test I spent 15 minutes to describe his mistakes. And what do you think? The three last mistakes were exactly related to my explanation.😂

[Mumski45]

@mumof32015
Hi I was in this situation a few years ago with DS1. His accuracy was fab but his speed was very slow. He also had a problem with not wanting to move on until a question was answered so when doing a timed paper would run out of time for questions he could have done more quickly.
I read this tip about timing the questions rather than the paper on the 11 plus site and it seemed to work.

When doing a practice paper (initially not timed) I would give him a 1 min timer and if he came to a question he couldn't answer quickly I told him to turn on the timer and if it wasn't finished when the timer went off he should move on to the next question. So the timer wasn't used for every question however it got him used to understanding how quick he needed to be and realising when he was spending too much time on a question.

After a while of practicing this we would reduce the timer from 1 min to 30 secs.

Once he got into the habit of working more quickly we went back to timed papers and the improvement was very noticeable.

He is now at the Grammar School in year 8 and DS2 starts in Sept

Good luck

[Dixiechickonhols]

Speed comes with practice just keep doing the papers. Sounds like they are doing great at this stage. Another tip was to do the practice paper timed. Stop when time is up draw line under but let her answer rest. Then at end mark them and say you got 35/50 but if you finished in time you would have got 45/50 it’s a good motivator.

[mumof32015]

Thank you for the reply, we were going to just do a practice test every Saturday afternoon but I have been reading that doing little and often is better than just doing practice tests. We have a few good verbal reasoning books so I will use them. I feel this is stressing me out more than my daughter, as she isn't bothered at all which is for the best really. I don't want her to be worried about it, I just want her to pick up the speed 😁

[BubblesBuddy]

Maybe her brain needs the time to figure out the answers? Maybe she cannot work at the speed required for the grammar school? If other DC are finishing the papers, will your DD really be as quick as they are with repetition? Sounds like she’s not bothered so you shouldn’t be!

[MeMeMeYou]

Lots of practice with 10 minute tests, plus the odd long test). We'd do the long tests to time and tell her when time was up so she could see how much was left and mark where she'd got to, then let her finish in her own time. Each time she did a long paper she could see how much further she'd got. It's quite a well until the actual 11+ tests so high accuracy now is great, and timing will come with practice. Also, make sure times tables and number facts are totally memorised - this will speed things up hugely in maths

[Dixiechickonhols]

It’s still very early. She’s obviously capable if she is getting the answers right. Once a week seems fine now, we just upped the practice papers in the summer hols and my dd’s speed picked up. 11 plus is about technique and with practice a child will speed up. Mine is yr 8 at a grammar now.

[mumof32015]

Thank you so much for everyone's advice. I just wanted to say, that doing the 11+ is my daughter's choice and not mine. For me personally I would not have considered grammar school, but her reasons are that she loves learning and she wants to be with other children who feel the same. Yesterday I had a very stressful day, and her conformation letter for the test came and I think it really dawned on me that she is actually going to do it. Every practice test that she has not been timed has come out at around 80%-90%. Her teacher said that is an excellent start considering she is not taught a lot of the stuff at her current school. Last night I bought some bond 10 minute test books from amazon, and a 60s sand timer. I am hoping this will help her to understand the pace that she needs to work at. I woke up this morning and thought at least it is just the timing issue, and not that she doesn't know the answers because at least I can help her work faster. I don't think I would be able to teach her what she needs to know as I can't answer half the questions myself. Thankfully we now have a plan in place and I am starting to feel better about it all.

[Mumski45]

Good to hear you are feeling better.
I do think it is easier to solve a timing issue than an accuracy one.
I also don't believe that this is indicative of how the child will cope at grammar school once there. I was a bit worried about DS1 as he worked hard before the 11+. However now he is there he is more than keeping up with the required standard and it absolutely is the right school for him.

I just hope DS2 settles in as easily as DS1.

Hi to @Dixiechickonhols - hope your DD is enjoying her GS - I remember you from 3years ago when we both had DC preparing for 11+ how time flies 😉