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Original poster

11+ mocks - any miracle stories?!

31 replies

AskTony · 22/05/2025 07:49

Hi,

Feeling bad for DS at the moment. He sat his first mock 11+ at the weekend and scored around 55%. He is one of the top of his class in school and always does well with any bits of preparation we do at home and he thought he'd done ok so this came as a bit of a shock. I've not told him his score as I know he'll be upset and demotivated.

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has any positive stories of poor mock performance but then doing well in the real thing? I've looked through his answers and a lot of them are what look like silly mistakes. There were only a handful that I thought were genuinely too hard for him or covered topics he hasn't covered in great depth yet.

I don't want a debate on grammar schools. I hate the system but I am from this area, my family are here and it's just where we live and something we're automatically part of. Almost every child at his school sits the exam and his friends are on track to do well and more than anything he wants to be at the same school as them. We do one hour with a tutor and bits at home. More tuition is not an option, either money-wise or wellbeing wise for DS!

The exam is September. Just feels like a long 3-4 months of dredging ourselves through somethign which we may already have a sign isn't going to be worth it.

Thank you :)

OP posts:
yoshiblue · 23/05/2025 09:21

What area are you in? Personally we didn’t do mocks that early, end of June was the first, then two beginning/end of the summer holidays. I wouldn’t worry too much for now.

Agree you need to work on speed but also stamina to concentrate for longer periods. As well as 10 min books, I got a set of practice exam papers but sliced them up to better replicate the Trafford test eg 1/2 a paper of maths (20 mins), 1 x 15 min comprehension. I’d be looking into your exam format in detail and try to replicate practice at home as much as possible.

Also look if there is a particular subject he is dropping marks. Comprehension was something I worked on in more detail, as I realised he was trying pick out answers and he personally suited reading the whole text first. He got a lot of questions wrong assuming the witch in the text was nasty! The comprehension was actually about a kind and helpful witch! That was such a useful example which led us to change approach and then raise his comprehension scores from 50% to near 90%!

Good luck, I know how stressful it is, but deep breaths!

Original poster
AskTony · 22/05/2025 21:37

@MyDenimBee yes the time pressure definitely makes it harder! We've done lots of 10 minute tests but never more than that and to be honest we've never been bothered with the time, we've just been focussing more on learning methods, concepts, vocab, etc than speed. Maybe now is the time to start focussing on working quickly!

I went through a bit of it with him this evening and he saw his mistakes straight away on all but three of the questions! So that gives me some reassurance that it's the technique and timing he needs to work on rather than being too far behind with the actual knowledge. I'll keep hopes up for now!

OP posts:
MyDenimBee · 22/05/2025 18:11

Hi my daughter sat 11+ last September we did test booklets and mock tests at home we didn’t use a tutor she’s very bright and above average in all areas but she found some test papers we have challenging we encouraged her to re look at the incorrect ones most times she could see her mistake when given unlimited time. I think it’s timing the test that makes them seem harder adds pressure but we wanted to practice timing though as it’s very strict on the day. We did also get her going back to check odd questions she wasn’t sure of at the end but on the day this didn’t help as each of the 4 sections are timed individually not as a whole test like we’d though

Original poster
AskTony · 22/05/2025 13:04

Thank you @UmmH and @Pineapple32 for your replies.

I like the idea of getting him to find the ones he got wrong and I'm certain he would spot them straight away. That would hopefully help him think more about reading the questions carefully - I definitely think there was a large element of rushing and missing the smaller details in things that were being asked.

Agree also that practising will help, and that is what we intend to do now for the last few months. The fact that he's usually very good at maths gives me some hope that he'll pick the harder topics up fairly quickly. There are definitely some he hasn't covered yet with his tutor in any detail so hopefully those will be easy marks for him to pick up once he's gone through those.

We are lucky in that we have two other decent enough schools nearby and of course, you are right in that most of his classmates will go to those and not get into the grammar. He's just currently hearing lots of stories of high mock scores so it's easy to get carried away and assume these children will pass!

We have another mock in a few weeks' time so we'll see how he gets on then!

OP posts:
Pineapple32 · 22/05/2025 12:14

You still have time. I would spend some time analysing how he lost marks. Often at this time it’s about speed - they need practice to get faster and get through the full paper. It sounds like perhaps he got through the questions but made some mistakes. Is this because he was rushing? Or can you identify what sort of question he’s getting wrong? My recommendation is practice practice practice. After each practice - analyse where and why he’s losing marks.

UmmH · 22/05/2025 10:56

I wouldnt be disheartened yet. A lot can change in 3 months. It's a struggle to get kids to review their work. Encourage him to read through his answers and spot silly mistakes himself. Tell him how many there are so that finding them becomes a 'fun' puzzle. Then have a chat with him that 10 silly mistakes means 10 marks lost.

The mock has shown you which questions were too hard for him, so have the tutor focus on those for a bit. Maybe also take him to see some other schools just in case. I'd be surprised if all his friends get into the grammar school and none go elsewhere.

All the best to him.