How is DS going to stand a chance at the 11 plus exam if I can't figure it all out?

[DoItTooJulia]

Aibu? Why is it so difficult to figure it all out! It's like a test for parents, and I think I'm failing!

I have had mixed feelings about the exam, but ds is adamant he wants to give it a go. He's a bright child (he would be, I'm a mumsnetter ) but I don't know if he's superselective bright. I guess there is one way to find out.

So I've said no tuition but I would help him over the summer to prepare for the exam style and timings and stuff because it feels like a good compromise. So I'm googling away, ready to spend £50 on the books and stuff and I'm bamboozled!

What's cem, cgp, cloze? I could spend hundreds on the books and just can't figure out what the fuck to buy. Or download. It's the birmingham exam, so I have figured out its cem, but seriously am I being a struggler?

Any seasoned pros fancy guiding me through this?

I did exactly what steppemum says (CEM), for the reasons you cite OP

He practised daily for no more than an hour a day for 4 weeks over the Summer holidays and that was it.

... and yes, he's doing really well. We knew, and he knew it was the right place for him

Op I am in Birmingham too. Ds has just decided he wants to sit the entrance test. I've had a look on the eleven plus forums and downloaded some practice papers. They say the CEM test is tutor proof but so many still have tutoring.

For ds there is absolutely no pressure. He is academically able, if he scores well he will have a choice come October, if not he will go to our local comp with dd. I will do some practicing with him over the summer but that's it.

honey

Exactly the same situation here!

I don't understand why the primary schools do not prepare kids for the exam. If they taught them and gave them mocks leading up to it, a lot more would take the examination and pass it. It seems outrageous to me that people have to pay for extra tutoring (which often doesn't work). It's the non verbal reasoning where many come unstuck.

Op, get hold some sample exam papers, they are available on the internet for where I live (Bromley area), and probably are for Birmingham.

If the exam is largely verbal reasoning, then IMO practice is definitely essential.

We lived abroad until our elder was 10. She had precisely one term at her new U.K. school before the 11 plus. When she started that term, she had never even seen a VR test before, and her initial scores were 45%ish. But by the end of that term - they practised them every day at school - her scores went up to 90%+. (We didn’t employ a private tutor.)

Yet I’d been told, by someone whose job was in primary education, that practice would make no difference - the tests were designed to ‘spot a child’s potential’.
From our experience that is just bollocks.

She did pass the 11 plus and later went on to a Russell Group university.

Zombie thread alert!

Always relevant though, cathcath.

Yes - I agree - the only really potential that can be spotted is the potential of a child who understands how the questions are asked and how to answer them amd what to look out for. This requires teaching amd some practise. A child that hase
Never seen vR or NVR and then does a test doesn’t stand a chance no matter how bright they are

I remember doing NVR and VR at school prior to 11+ and I'm seventy! We didn't call them by those names then though. I'm appalled schools don't include them in the curriculum and wonder what they do teach. Having said that, the children of neighbours and friends managed to pass and go to grammar schools without any extra tuition so some primaries must be on the ball.