Do feel free to skip the long post below and thanks for all the info on weekends.
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Having read Wobbles21’s comment, I feel bad that I may have unnecessarily stressed out anyone by implying that daily prep is necessary for their son.
Since the parents know their boy best, it’s up to each one to devise a strategy, tailored to that child, that will lead to the exam result they desire.
For my son, extensive prepping and daily work were definitely necessary.
Here is how these helped him - not to scrape through or be artificially prepped - but to really develop all those neural connections that ensure a firm base for future learning. The strategy may well be different for your son. But knowing how I learn best (and how similar he is to me) determined my strategy for my son.
Things that he was not doing well that daily 10+ prep corrected:
- Creative writing was really flat and the plots of his stories were poor. We used the 11-step lifeline method and his writing came on by leaps and bounds. The more he wrote, the more realistic, nuanced and well-plotted his stories became, with great vocab. Often I made him write the story three times from scratch, each time using the 11-step method more effectively.
- He lost 10-20% of marks by making really silly errors in his best subject, Math. Daily practice with past papers under time constraints reduced them (but did not eliminate them). The amount of marks lost really jolted him into upping his focus.
- His timed VR tests taught him to work accurately under pressure. He was one of very few who finished the Trinity VR test. I was told he got one of the highest scores they had seen.
- As a corollary to the above, had I ensured he read classical children’s literature widely for some years before the exam, his comprehension would have been less superficial than it was - he tended to cherry-pick the ‘best fit’ answer from the text rather than understanding the characters’ underlying motives.
I know that my son’s best academic performances come when I immerse him in the subject over a period of time. His understanding - like mine - strengthens with repeated practice, leading to new insights in both English and Math. His problem-solving leapt ahead, so that just before the 10+, he was getting 70% in 11+ Math papers.
My goal was to be in a position where every school he applied for would see him as an outstanding candidate. Since he is under consideration for academic scholarships at both T and W, I feel personally fulfilled that I have read correctly how best he learns, devised the appropriate prep strategy, implemented it even on the days when it was difficult for both of us, and thereby taken him to the exam outcome I desired.
BlueandPink12, here’s wishing you find that same satisfaction using your own method and setting goals specific to your son ! Best of luck x