2023 11+ LATE start (independent or grammar)

Use my referral code HHaD50Bg and save £30 on Atom Learning! https://atomlearning.com/p/HHaD50Bg

delete if not allowed. Thought it may help others and gives a discount to both :) Set up the learning and he’s done maths and English so far and liked the format. Shame the main test isn’t online. Thanks so much for the suggestion! Will work well with the 1-2-1 tutor!

Someone just try to deny what other people says. It is normally when my post appear then the handful of little prep mum appear.

I’ll have a look at the trial thank you. My son likes doing online tests. He has been given homework by the tutor as well which is good.

Im also wary of overloading him as don’t want him to get stressed. He isn’t at the moment. It’s hard to get the balance isn’t it. I wish they covered 11+ in mainstream school,

This is normally the point in any Preplex thread where another poster with a strangely similar set of verbal tells shows up to agree with her very strongly and possibly go one better.

I genuinely believe there will be case that a child only do 11+ prep one hour per week for 6 month in total ( tutor, practice, school focus exercise time etc all inclusive) can get in the top superselective school in London last year or this year.

It is just not my child, not any children of the peer parents of my acquaintances IRL (it is a large sample size) . Maybe it could be your child by any chance, the mum knows the child best and it is for them to decide.

Yup, it depends on each individual case. I know dc who had a tutor and still did not get in schools. In these cases, I think a little parent input or using an additional source such as Atom learning to make sure they are covering all their bases. Or in some cases when the dc were in private, the parents thought this was enough and did not do much out of school. If you want to ensure your dc has the best chance to get in a school, you must be involved (unless you are certain you have a very experienced 11+ tutor). My dd started her prep late, but she had a tutor once a week and did Atom. I used Atom to keep track of her progress. If I felt she was doing really well in one area, but lagging slightly in another, I made sure she focused a little more on the challenging area.

It is important to realise how of representative of each case and how one would correlate to their situation to the reported one. We keep hearing a handlful of mums (repeatedly) saying little prep was required when they did the 11+ 5-6 years ago. I found any discussion with this will end up nowhere, but I have collected some fresh prep efforts reported by last year (2022, 2023 intake, London selective schools mainly last year) hoping that more sample size is a better representation of the norm and help parents to make more informed decisions.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4723610-sw-london-private-grammar-applying-for-year-7-in-2023?reply=123329581&utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

Atom learning is well worth it. Do the 5 day trial and you will see. When you do the trial, do the one with mocks.

Same here. I find trying to discuss anything along these lines with Preplex involved at best ends up in people talking at cross purposes.

Like @HighRopes, we did a little prep - we used a tutor but only for about 6 months for an hour a week and mainly focusing on exam technique, nothing in school holidays. This was because the sorts of common sense approaches that adults will employ faced with difficult questions and time-pressured situations are not always obvious to ten year olds. I also wanted the prep to be confined to just that short time every week and leave plenty of time for DD to just be a kid, watch television, play, do her extra-curricular stuff etc. Using a tutor meant it was easy to switch off from it when the session was over. We tried to make it a low stakes process and DD mostly quite enjoyed it all. It all worked out fine and DD got into the schools she was interested in and ended up somewhere that she is very happy with.

If you have specific questions, I'd be very happy to try and answer, though as others say it's hard to comment without knowing specific schools because they can vary a lot in what they are looking for, academically and otherwise.

I don't know anything about Atom scores because we didn't use anything like that.

Best of luck, and hope your daughter enjoys the process.

@Torvi1211 you can try elevenplusexams forum to find your area and school, it normally contains info on historical pass rates.

That’s helpful thank you. It’s a shame the Atom programme is so expensive. With tuition it would really add up. I’m not sure how children could do these tests without some support.

The school we are going for is just English and Maths. They don’t have a pass rate it’s done based on the top scorers at the time so 🤞

For grammar can try look high level info below, some area the registration is closing this month.

https://atomlearning.com/blog/category/grammar-schools

It says English and Maths. I assumed all schools had the same exam. Incorrectly it seems :) So much to learn! :)

I think the first thing is to understand your target schools and exam formats etc. Most of the info available at the school website.

Hi my son is starting late prep and started with a tutor. Can I ask do different areas do the verbal reasoning/different tests?

It was my understanding that this year verbal reasoning was not included. It would be comprehension, maths and SPAG. I could have misunderstood though 🙈

@SuttonMums your experience is very similar to the other thread describe. Think It is very common in that area, last year we did a Sutton Mock in a sunny day end of May and we can still remember the number of parents and kids vividly.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4804140-could-any-child-get-into-sw-london-grammars-with-tutoring?reply=126194709&utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

@HighRopes someone clearly actively try to advocate your "relatively minimalist approach" in many MN threads. I wonder if the advocator do the same for her child.

Happy to chat with OP if she wishes, but am avoiding commenting as I know Preplex strongly disagrees with my relatively minimalist approach, and I have no desire for it to derail the thread as it has done others.

In our area, there are hundreds of children tutoring at year 5 for 11+. DC was one of them last year.

Since Spring term, DC attended a popular group tuition lesson once a week for 90 minutes. The tuition group has pre-assessment before joining, majority of the children in the group are at "greater depth" in primary school, some from private schools. The tuition is to cover content more advanced than they may be able to cover at school in both literacy and maths subject.

The tuition also assign homeworks, together with Atom learning practice took my DC just over one hour a week day to finish and review.

During this time I also made time to do a lot of reading with DC and talking about it at dinner time at bed time.

DC secured the target Grammar place in the end. Not everyone attended the same tuition group got their first choice school, but most have got into Grammar (SET) or good private school in the area. Though I am not aware of any child did substantially less work secured a place in the year.

I feel lucky that we spend the time to do the preparation, had DC not do 11+ the hour day time would have easily gone to screen time. DC has developed the self-discipline and devotion that it won't have the chance to exert in the Primary school.

I am grad that it worked for us, so are the many other parents and children too.

I will be very careful on the word "Equally" - every child is different, understand the population (different school will attract different kind of applicants) and where your DD current ability and prep level fit in the spectrum is important.

@MyBoiledEggIsTooSoft Hi. Is your DD currently at state primary or prep school? I wasn't sure from your post. That will be a factor too.

I think you'll find that there are as many different versions of prepping for the 11+ as there are parents. Everyone has a different approach / different take (and you'll find the full range of views on here!) We know parents with kids at prep schools who are doing 5+ hours tutoring a week on top of school (madness). Equally there are parents on MN of bright state school children who've done very light prep and whose DDs have got into top super selectives (I don't know if you want to weigh in here @bonjourcrisette and @highropes !)

As other posters have said, so much depends on the child's academic ability and the schools you're targeting. And a lot depends on the experience you want your child to have over the next six months. Some parents feel that working a child very hard for a defined period of time is worth it for the potential payoff. Some feel that light prep / guidance / exam technique is sufficient and don't feel comfortable doing hours and hours of extra work. It's a personal parental choice. But those initial Atom scores are really encouraging - it's just about identifying the weaker areas and working on those.

Great that your DD is doing sports camp. Keeping extra curricular going is key. Let us all know when you've decided on schools as that will be a huge factor too in the kind of work you need to do. The key is Don't Panic!

If you have time to read those divisive replies in the thread. The parents on that forum is more open to this topic, with more close to hand experience too. This was 4 years ago.

Sorry my bad I thought you were having a dig but then I read the link you posted…..omg some parents are crazy!!!
no child needs this level of intervention/tuition ever!

@geoger sorry my comment didn't mean to say any negative on your post. As you can see my earlier reply in the same thread, I suggest the same website for exam information too. And I agree with your post.

Just want to highlights the big variations on the approach people took on this subject.