11+ is going to ruin me

The problem with all these MN conversations is that only you know the exact context of your local schools. It is absolute nonsense for other MN parents to tell you that the other schools will be fine, if you know that it won't be right for your child.

Anyway, I just wanted to suggest something that may be a useful fall-back option: have you considered going to teach at a 3-18 independent school? You could teach in the prep part and your son could attend the senior section.

Best of luck for the test.

Well you know what's best for your son and by this stage volume definitely isn't the answer, it's just fine tuning on timing and silly mistakes. I'm sure he will do great! Just remind him that half the applicants will be taking the test in the afternoon so he's certainly not at a disadvantage. Just plan something nice for after so he can totally forget about it and don't ask him about the questions otherwise he doubts himself and you may panic. My children both came out and talked about the questions and I was thinking omg you are wrong and failed (in my head) but they actually passed very well.

My DD starts grammar school next week so she's very nervous as none of her friends got in but I remind her she's worked so hard to get there and to enjoy the experience. Honestly feels like forever ago she done the test, I can still feel the nerves of dropping her off and picking her up.

@AlwaysReadyNeverSteady good luck for next month. Hope you and your son managed to iron out the creases

Schools will NEVER be the answer to social mobility and ‘better resuits.’ This is because the real determiners are home-life, upbringing, parental support and the natural ability of the child.

Yes, the suggestion that they are somehow a test of innate ability and that they can’t be taught is laughable.

I immediately saw it was C - but I've had four children go through the 11+ successfully - (and the eldest is now at Cambridge - he could do them as fas as he looked at them all those years ago). However, without the HOURS of practising NVR over the years with the other three, I would have sat there for a long time figuring out what was moving where....

@BarqsHasBite looks like it's the type of test that people think can't be tutored. But very much are. I had no idea but @KittyMcKitty explanation makes sense once you know what to look for

I would go with C also. White moves to next corner and black by half a space for want of a better explanation.

I completely agree that once you know the rules and the logic these are certainly do-able, but you’re right that the real challenge then comes with being able to do these under exam conditions with enormous time pressure.

I’m similarly perplexed that the NVR (and some of the VR in particular!) is the best and fairest way of predicting academic potential but no doubt it has been shown to be the case.

@BarqsHasBite it is C.

Tbh this is one of the easy NVR questions I have seen. Gven the rules and explain the logic, won't be difficult to solved by 11 year old or university graduate or professor..

The hard part is the timing, think about doing these kind of test with a pace of less than 30 second per question. And those who scores most correct will pass the test. It will require intensive practice and tutoring to do it well.
Even so I failed to comprehend why it is a good way to select students like this.

For all those questioning why any tutoring is necessary for 11+, would you like to tell us what the answer is and why to this non verbal reasoning question? Which square completes the grid.

@WandaWonder @Roomonthedustpan @Defaultsettings @bookworm14

By way of background, I have an Oxbridge degree and couldn’t do it.

I showed it to my uncle (first class physics degree from Oxford, PhD from Imperial, post-doc from Paris and decades as a physics professor). He couldn’t do it either.

So am very interested to hear how you all get on….

In our area the 11+ / entrance exams for all the grammars and privates are full of stuff that isn't taught until later in yr6 in state schools. Literally every child is tutored to pass. Common for people to tutor for two years. It's an entire industry

times have changed and pretty much nobody gets in these schools without years of tutoring. Most underplay how much they have done. Do what you think is right for your child and you. A 10 year old will possibly never say ‘yeah give me so much work for a school entry I know nothing about.’ I get you know as an adult what the future might hold. Definitely try Atom as it is online and marked. Good luck.

Apologies - I was inferring based on your previous post about your DC’s experience of tutoring. Wrong of me to make an assumption.

I don’t have any children in grammar schools, not sure why you think I do.

Neither will go to selective state schools

Poor boy! Your son just need a mum at home not another teacher.
I grow up in a teacher's home, my parents are both teachers. Teachers are always bring home their teaching skill, always encouring, pursuading and patience. The skills are all good, but don't use them to cover the real thoughts. Check with your boy, talk about his real feeling. Admit he is not one of your students. Because you saw so many pupils and they are doing well, so you want your own son follow their path. He should have his own way!
Back to 11+, do what you can to support him as a mum not as another teacher.
Even this hard exam allow mistakes, if he cannot manage some concept, may only lose few points, use some strategy not a big deal.
For youself only word is relax, ask if he fail do you still love him? Just continue love him then let him do his own work. Don't let the exam spoil your relationship.

Grammar schools are not the be all and end all. Many are very overrated, especially in Bucks. DCGS is rife with drugs, bullying, racism, homophobia, theft, you name it. Some of the teaching staff are as bad as the kids who are worse than their parents and this takes some doing.

Bucks is a grammar county, it is different game.

Is the test age appropriate?The Buckinghamshire STT is designed to be taken at the beginning of the Autumn term when children move in to Year 6. Literacy levels in the test are kept as low as possible to ensure that the test assesses reasoning ability rather than levels of literacy. Additionally maths or English content in the test does not go beyond what the national curriculum expects children to know and be able to do by the end of Year 5.

Copied from their website.

@ThanksItHasPockets my two DSs sat it and they had covered the maths content so I am assuming its a school thing rather than a curriculum thing. I also commented about the different bands of teaching so our primary had children who were working at a higher level that may have covered that content already within Yr 5. That said, my understanding is that it should only contain levels of English and maths that should have been covered within the curriculum - this is for Bucks.

"The 11+ content is based on curriculum for that age"

No if PP went through recent 11+ will know a lot of advantage on the exam if cover a higher level of curriculum.... For Maths and English and VR!

Where does she say that? I’ve just skimmed again and can’t find it. She does say that the 11+ maths includes year 6 curriculum content that won’t have been taught by the autumn term but that is not the same thing.

I've just RTFT fully and see that your school has not covered the curriculum that it should have by Yr 5, I'm assuming it does not have different bands of teaching for more and less able students? That does make things tougher.

Areas change, new houses are built, catchments have to be adjusted as a result, schools improve and decline. That’s not comparable to the situation of non-selective schools with neighbouring grammars whose attempts to improve are hamstrung by their context.

It’s great that your son is having a good experience in a grammar, it really is. However if you want to engage with this issue and declare it ‘odd’ that anyone might object to grammars you will need to move away from whataboutery and find a way to resolve the cognitive dissonance that a system that favours your son on an individual level sadly has a negative impact on many of his peers. It would be disingenuous of those of us who work in this area and are interested in the evidence at a systemic level to deny this.