2023 Eleven Plus support thread

My son is studying for a super selective state school where only a handful of children get in each year for academic achievement .

We’re tutoring once a week and AtomLearning daily. His verbal reasoning and English are fine. Maths not so great. He’s struggling with word questions. The algebra question on the sample paper even the teacher didn’t understand. Nor my partner who took pure maths as an A-level and considered himself excellent at algebra! So that’s a worry.

We're prepping for Bexley which have just announced the format for the papers, as they're switching provider this year (CEM to GL). Not a huge shift from previous years.

We've been doing work with DS at home since about November. Just 30 mins most days although ramping it up a bit now. We've been working through CGap books and have started practice papers.

He's flying at maths and NVP but his spelling is letting him down a bit and some inference too. I think he'll be ok overall.

In Bexley the top 180 scorers pick whatever school they want. After that it's a case of all children who reach the 'selective' level can just apply and it's usual criteria (looked after, siblings, distance). We're solid for two of them on distance but our nearest one is very popular so we're right at the limit in distance.

See how it goes!

Brutal is definitely the right word. The worst bit is I suspect at least 6 of the kids in her year are going in for it and there's only 8 of them! Like you say I can see ranking being discussed especially by one very competitive child!

You're lucky being only a mile away. Distance only matters to us if there's a borderline ranking and we're 5 miles away so could be worse.

The NVR tutor said the scores were ok for halfway through the year and said he wasn't stressing over them as he knew the scores would improve after they'd done a few more.

@elevenduck

That sounds like a very different system to ours. After you reach the qualifying mark do you know if you've got in or do you have a horribly long wait until March?

So with ours there is no catchment area at all. I've heard of people living 25 miles away being offered a place. It's crazy. There is no set pass mark instead there are 360 places between both schools. You're given your ranking at the end of October then you have to work out if to put it on the form or not. So one year 72% could get you in but the next year it could be 83%!

We're also doing the exam factory but they all are very nice and the groups are small. Same as you dds friend is also there so they enjoy going there every week.

I think the majority of kids struggle with NVR as I was amazed how low the average scores were for their last test. I think it was around 35% but I thought there would be a wider range of marks. My dd got 75% and he said that was a really high score!

We're in West Yorkshire so aiming for the Calderdale grammar schools. Two schools but you sit the same exam and then put your preference down on the form. I'm not familiar with Bucks at all. Are you aiming for one school or several?

Its speed with NVR here too. She's getting a reasonable number right but we're still a way off doing 20 in 10 mins. I think it's really going to stress her out. Like you I don't know how to speed her up either.

VR and Maths are very strong and I don't worry about them. English is reasonably good but inference lets her down occasionally. I think she's reading it too fast and not getting the detail.

How much are you doing a week? Do you have a tutor. I'm not overwhelming her here but it would be nice to hear how much prep others are doing.

Things are going so so over here. We've found out more about the exam and the only thing that concerns me is 20 NVR questions in 10 mins. It's quite a tall order.
My preferred school also has a new head who appears to be extremely strict so we'll have to see what the school is like now.
How are you getting on?

Thanks, she is super happy. It was not too much effort because we only decided to do the 11+ end of May year 5. She prepped using atom learning and got a tutor once a week. The tutor was a group zoom session, but she felt it helped a lot. Atom helped us figure out what schools to target by looking at her mock scores. We were lucky in that our head did write a letter of recommendation. Perhaps if you ask, the head might do the same? You would have to let the head know what extra curricular activities your dc does and the teacher will probably have to let the head know more about how your dd is doing academically. What I am doing differently is prepping my son way earlier lol. I would have done this with my dd if I knew she was doing the 11+ She got good results in the end, so I am happy about that.

For my ds we are starting off slowly with a little atom learning for English and math to make sure he covers the curriculum in good time. Private schools finish the curriculum usually by mid year 5 and then focus on 11+ prep. State schools finish end of year 6. So it is important if coming from a state school to make sure you cover everything. My advice would be to keep on top of what your dc is doing. If she does not know something, go over it with her. Even if you have a tutor. Or make sure the tutor goes over it. When she did a mock exam, I either had her go over what she got wrong by herself or I would sit with her sometimes. Good luck!

@SamPoodle123 Well done to your daughter, that must have been a big effort on both your parts - and she must be thrilled to have a place at G&L! Unfortunately we have zero interest or support from our state primary, they’re unlikely to even provide a report when asked so it does feel like a solo journey. Is there anything you’ll do differently with your son second time around?

My dd just did the London Consortium exam for G&L and FHSS. She got offers to both and will go to G&L. She is at a state primary. Let me know if you have any questions. Has your school been helpful at all? Our school was not able to give any guidance at all. My ds is year 4, but wanted to join this thread in case some people have good tips for the boy schools.

Great idea for a group. Would be lovely to chat to people in the same situation.
DD will be sitting the 11+ this year. I think we're doing ok on most things but inference is a tricky area and NVR too. There is no official pass mark for us so need to get as many points as she can.
How's everyone getting on?

Anyone targeting the London Consortium schools for their DD? Just wanted to say hi and that I’ll be following this thread for the next year. DD is currently at a state primary so feels like we have a looong way to go…

Hi trying to get DD into nonsuch cheam. She started maths tuitions and has been improving but sometimes gets intimated by the questions when we are practising on our own. I have ordered cgp gL books too to help. Unfortunately I’m not good at maths myself to help her where she gets stuck but still trying my best to support her. She is good with easy questions but problem solving type questions scare her. Currently spending 30 mins weekdays and around 1-2 hours weekends. Have also registered her for mock tests in may. Searching for past papers now so we can start practising those. Any help in the forum will be really good. I’ve been reading orders posts on another forum but any new information is a plus. Hope this forum gets us all through till the exam. 😊

I would say unlikely she is "faffing". Most DCs start naturally slow, partly because they have not worked under time pressure before, but also because they aren't familiar with many techniques of doing things fast (especially in maths).

Lot and lot of practice will help, plus teaching faster techniques of doing things - mental maths, eliminating obviously wrong answer choices to narrow down options instead of plunging into a possibly long calculation right away etc.

Is she slow in particular area(s) or slow in general? If in specific areas, then it will be useful to understand how she is solving these and see if better techniques can be applied.

If her technique is fine, then I am afraid it's going to be a lot of practice. Nothing wrong with that though, you have caught it early enough and have plenty of time!

We're doing ok so far.

DS loves the non verbal reasoning so is doing great. Also good at comprehension. Fairly good with verbal reasoning so far. Surprisingly he's finding maths hard. He aces maths in school, always working at greater depth but the Bexley maths test covers a lot he hasn't learned in school so he's having to really work at it and it's knocking his confidence a bit. We'll get there though.

Have just been through the process just come on here to mention that I found atom learning helpful. The fullest package is eyewatering in cost but you can literally toggle between packages just doing the higher one for a few days to do a practice test then when you toggle back down the credit is added. I don't have shares honestly but it helped as DS was very reluctant but he likes computers.

@elevenduck Berks here, good to have a support network

Hello from SW London, where I’ll be navigating this challenge for my DD - she’s at a kind, nurturing prep which has suddenly gone scary with homework and exam prep in Y5 - we are ALL feeling the pressure. DD is probably dyslexic (assessment coming next month) and neither me nor DH have not come from the Indy sector ourselves, so I am pretty much dreading the entire process. Glad to have some other hands to hold on this ride!