11+ mocks - any miracle stories?!

We’re also in catchment for Stretford but not Sale, DS loved Stretford open day so would be ecstatic if he manages to secure a place there too! Best of luck to your DS aswell 🥰

We’re in the exact same boat! My DS has also attempted some mocks with scores steadily increasing, but unsure of how the real thing will go, hopefully they pass in 2 weeks 😅 i’m trying not to put too much pressure on him but it’s all very stressful! Will be glad when it’s all over in 2 weeks time, have you got a particular school in mind?

Hi! how is your DS getting on? Any further mocks with Newell or elsewhere? We’re also in Trafford

Of course he needs to know how he has done! If he can look over the test and see where the mistakes are, then he will learn, and then do better. If not, then don't let him do the test.

Just had an underwhelming score in his mock. His tutor was very surprised. She said he didn't do any of the techniques taught in class 😔

She thinks this is a good thing and can be fixable. Just totally over this

At this point I spoke to my DS that sitting the mock is just to get used to what the test looks like. There is a chance that they’ve not covered all the areas presented in the test.

Its the first one and I told my DS that he absolutely wouldn’t pass and its not about passing it’s about familiarity with the test and the timings.

There is still plenty of time.

Dd got very low marks in maths and nvr in her earlier mock tests. Her tutor started in February which for her was far too early and we nearly pulled her out of tutoring as a result. By June she was scraping a pass. She ended up passing maths, doing better than expected in reasoning, and acing the English, and overall got a super selective mark (Kent test). We focused on making sure she was solid in enough areas. By this point she was never going to get the hardest questions right. She's just not a mathematician. We also found that a lot of the practice papers from her tutor were much harder than the Bond papers, so over the summer we focused on the Bond books. That might seem counterintuitive but it gave her the confidence she needed to stay focused rather than panicking before she'd even opened the paper. She sort of found her stride, did what she needed to do, and got to a point by mid August where she was feeling ready for the mid September test.

Great tips thanks

for timed practice, do 30 minutes at a time. If you have the 10 minute books, use them, but do 3 together. At this stage you need to build up that longer concentration.
Typically in maths, NVR and VR questions allow 30 seconds per question.
Some practice books allow less or more than that, but that seems to be the rule for the exam, so that gives you some idea of speed.
Tests differ, and I am not your area, but some tests have 'short' maths questions and then 'long' maths questions. The short fit into the 30 seconds pattern, the long ones don't.

I am an 11+ tutor.
I certainly wouldn't give up now.

3-4 months is a huge amount of time to do prep.
You don't say if he is doing any prep yet, if not, then you do need to plan to do it.
Clever kids who should be in the grammar school can fail without prep because of:

1. tricks in the questions which they are not expecting, so the question mixes cm and m for example. This is just about doing more practice, and reading the question carefully.
2. not expecting questions to be 2 or 3 step questions especially in maths. In order to work out the answer you have to work out something else first.
3. exam papers with mix of topics. In school you tend to focus on one maths topic at a time. Here you have to be ready to jump from one to another
4. exam techniques - stuck? Give it your best shot and move on. Sensible guess and keep going. Use mutiple choice answers to benefit you. Not sure? read it again, underline key words, circle key numbers. Look for patterns and clues. They never tell you anything accidentally, if they say it is a regular hexagon, then that matters, both that it is regular (all sides and angles even) and that it has 6 sides
5. correct maths terms with no explanation - product, sum, factor, prime, adjacent, all shape terms for 2D and 3D shapes etc
6. some topics or things they don't do in school. One or two maths questions and many VR and all the NVR are new, not necessarily hard, just needs some practice.
7. timing. Many kids are not used to working under time pressure. They have to concentrate and keep going!

So get hold of the correct practice books for your area and do loads of practice in the next 3 months. If he is regularly top of his class, and is working at greater depth in Maths and English, he should be fine.
Good Luck!

In the next few months, there are a few things needing to be seriously tackled excluding their academic capability.

1. Silly mistakes
2. Mental resilience
3. Speed

The 3rd one is the least of a problem, but need to make sure what they put down are correct. 100% correctness of 85% completion is better than 80% of 100%.

Silly mistakes would need to be managed by reading carefully and do their workings.

Mental resilience is the trickiest, particularly because it's different for each child. They can't be overly confident neither shall they be too nervous or scared.

If you manage these and with some luck, you don't need miracles as he's very capable of as you describe. He just needs to focusing on showing his true ability.

With a formal mock test, you should know more than just % of correct answer, how's the ranking ? The organisation should give you idea how likely your son will get into grammar school. Sometimes, the organisation just set the questions too difficult / too tricky, and it is not necessary to have 80% correct to define a pass.

Please also remind your child not to leave blank answers! In Trafford, it is multiple choice with no penalty for an incorrect answer - so if they are running short of time - guess!!!! There is a 1 in 4 chance of getting it right.
Obviously preferable to consider and answer each question within the time but the NVR especially is tough and as noted above, very time constrained. The number of children leaving blank answers is frightening and you can’t return to a section once finished.
Good luck!

In Kent, most years you only need 55-60% to pass. Did you not get given a standardised score and some context? Anyway, mocks are there for your child to learn from. If it was so easy that all kids passed first time, no one would need to do mocks! Help them learn from their mistakes and move on. Good luck

My kid failed every "formal" mock pre 11+. She passed the actual exam with points to spare. Currently doing GCSEs with expected grades of 7-9s. Never struggle in a grammar school, always good grades. Hope this gives you hope .. I could have done reading a story like this 5 years ago! Good luck

Thank you 🙏 🙏

Urrgh, Mumsnet are stripping the You Tube links out!

Look up ‘Top Dog Tutoring 11+ Reading Comprehension’ and ‘The 11+ Tutors in Essex’ is the other channel.

X

@Alleojam

Watch these YouTube videos for some more information. There are actually so many resources on there for 11+. I’d highly recommend Top Dog Tutoring for specific NVR topics. My son liked to watch these in the Summer holidays.

Could you please give more details on how you helped your child with comprehension. My DD is struggling with that at the moment scoring 50%

Hello from Trafford then! Having got a child with ADHD and Autism through the exam, I’ve tried every technique in the book 😭

The NVR is the hardest, I think they were bursts of 8 questions in 3 mins, which is quite frankly ridiculous! We were working more on 10 questions in 5 mins. I remember he wasn’t solidly getting to the end of all the 10 min NVR tests too.

My DS passed comfortably, and I think it’s worth remembering they don’t have to be really strong in all subjects.

Depending on your location, I’d suggest ticking for both Urmston and Stretford too. The standardised scores are a little lower.