Tutoring DC for Eleven Plus test.

[Asvan]

Hi everyone

My daughter is currently in year 5 and will be starting high school in September 2020. She is very bright and wants me to put her in for the Eleven Plus test as she wants to go to a very popular grammar school, which is local to us. The test will be in September this year and I wasn't thinking of doing much extra work for it as I didn't really want her getting too stressed out.

Anyway, she came home today and told me that two of her friends that are also going for the test have started going to private tutoring.

I can't really afford to send my DC, but I'm now thinking that it may be a good idea if we did some preparation at home. Could anyone recommend any books or resources that I could use to tutor her? I'm on a budget so can't afford anything too pricey.

The school that she wants to go to currently do the CEM tests, which are set by Durham University.

Thanks in advance.

Try posting on secondary education as there will.be loads going through it on there

The 11plus forum will be your best bet.

Though it can get a trifle intense over there.

Weve got some of the 11+ practice books from cgp. Check you get the right exam board though - it will need to have CEM on it (ours is the other one!)

Im in a similar position to you ,didnt want to particularly over tutor but discovered that in our area lots tutor from year 4!!

I dont want to cram from now either but have no idea how to really approach it

Theres the 10mins a day books which look good too.

You can also buy past exam papers direct but i know my daughter isnt ready for that. Well try those in the summer.....

My Ds did a few practices papers before he sat the 11+. I did not go down the tutoring route like everyone else seemed to. He passed with a high score. Unfortunately he has undiagnosed sen and grammar school has not been the right place for him but I think with a bright child it is completely possible to pass without any formal tutoring. Obviously it is useful to be familiar with the kind of paper being sat though.

We couldn't afford a tutor and also I though if we got one and DD passed then we would have to carry on with a tutor throughout secondary school.

We got hold of several practice papers and did a couple of sections a week during the summer holidays.

Get some books off amazon, she needs to practise verbal reasoning and non verbal reasoning, she could do with practice papers so that she knows how to fill the answer in eg is it on a separate answer sheet and colour a box in and also she needs practising answering papers for speed to get through enough questions in the time allowed.
Also make sure she’s reading books to increase her vocabulary.
Don’t read the 11+ forum otherwise you’ll get too stressed about it and that you haven’t tutored your child since birth.

Have you registered her for the exam with your council yet? I say this because in our authority the closing date is May 31.

There is an 11 plus website and you can choose the school/area and it gives lots of advice of what to buy to help on there. Sorry need to rush but will try and find the link.
And check the date. Our school
form is due in friday!

www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/advice/

Have a look on the CGP books website. Lots of resources!!

There is a great site with lots of free past papers that might be just what you are looking for. I find them very helpful, although we are practising GL papers. Have a look at www.schoolentrancetests.com. There is also an interesting alternative to traditional tutoring by Curvestone and Tutorful. This blog might highlight some other options, not only for GCSE Maths as the title suggests.
www.schoolentrancetests.com/2019/05/gcse-maths-tutors-on-demand-tuition/

Hi, you need to check if you need to register your daughter to take the test. Some areas are opt-out (eg Bucks) where all children take the test in their primary school unless you withdraw them. Then check the school's admission policy. Some admit by ranking eleven plus scores and some have a single pass mark but then even if a child passes they have to be within a catchment area. Then, check what exam provider is used for the school you want. Most are either GL Assessment or CEM. The two are very different. CEM requires a good knowledge of grammar, vocab and maths. GL requires children to be taught how to answer specific styles of verbal reasoning as well as techniques to answer within very short times. Then check if your child will have to sit the exam in a test centre/venue. If so, it would be wise to pay out the money and get her into some mock exams, as it can be very stressful for them on the day if the real test is their first experience of exam conditions. Last but not least, if your daughter is talking to her friends and they are all having tuition, this may stress her if she thinks she's the only one who isn't.

DD is the same age and luckily no desire to do 11+. Girls in her class have been tutored for at least a year now. One since Reception. It is soul destroying as this is all they seem to talk about in class. Local tutoring centre was running mock exams last week and exam itself isn’t till September. They will all have intensive tutoring over the summer holidays.

DS just did practice papers - he wanted to do the exam. As a summer baby he stood no chance and did really badly. But is thriving at local secondary. All the boys In his year that got to grammar were autumn babies.

DD will go to local secondary too and is looking forward to that.

Being a "summer baby" has no bearing on the test result because it is age adjusted. There is a look-up table where raw scores are converted to final scores. Younger children require a lower raw score than older children in order to achieve the same final score.
Check how good your local non selective schools are. If they are very poor, invest in tuition to get your child into the grammar school. It is now highly unlikely that a child will pass the eleven plus without tuition regardless of how clever they are. This is because the scores of the entire cohort sitting the exam will decide what the pass mark is. Only the top so many percent will "pass".

Visit '11 plus guide'. It will provide you all the information about any grammar school's 11 plus test. It's also recommends books too.

Web result with site links
11 Plus Guide
www.11plusguide.com

11 + Forum website is the place, you can get the exact information for your borough.

As previously said, some of the posters on there are insane; it makes Mumsnet look quite chilled! Big grin: grin

Put up a post specifically asking about the best self tutoring resources for your schools' test. Do not be put off by those that say you 'have' to use a tutor, that's not true.

I would advise at least taking the self tutoring at home seriously. A lot of child are tutored intensively for 1-2 years at least, and that's before you get into the amount of 'prep' prep schools are doing. You at least need to level the playing field and familiarisation with the tests' format is key.

All the best.

Also to anyone else reading do not be put off by the poster who said grammar did not work for her child with sen. It has worked exceptionally well for mine. I would say like anything some schools are good at adjustments/care and some aren't.

Another recommendation for the CGP CEM tests here. All 3 of mine did the CEM tests and used the CGP books. However, although the books are very useful, one of the biggest things you can do is to encourage lots of reading. With the CEM tests, a good vocabulary is a massive help. They also need to know how to spell the words too, but's its the vocab that is critical.

I would agree that you don't need a tutor as long as you can go through the answers together after each test. As to how much practice, DS1 did a test a week for about 2 terms. DS2 we started doing the same, but he got disheartedned when he struggled with a test so we cut it down and did vocabularly lists instead (we called it an 'interesting words' list and just added to it when we thought of good or unusual words). DD3 was home educated so we used the books quite a bit in year 5. All of them passed fairly easily with about the same sort of mark.

11+ in our area is not age adjusted. It was years ago, but not now. So, yes, a real thing for us. Different areas have different tests / rules and not all schools follow them. There are 2 different tests in our area, depending on the school you want.

Hmmm we dont have time for 2 terms worth of tests. I'm beginning to wish we started earlier even though I thought I didnt belive in lots of prep...

We probably won't start tests yet as she hasnt actually learnt all the maths yet...

This is Exactly why the current 11+ is SO wrong !!
When it was a test for ALL children in the school. And the school prepared for it then there was a level playing field.

My DD1 is a 'super head' for failing primaries . Her frustration at bright kids from poor backgrounds who get pipped at the post by less academic children from wealthy families who can afford coaching , drives her to despair because she is not permitted to train them for the exam in school time.
It's selection by money. Wrong in every way. The more people subscribe to it the more it continues.

The way I saw it was ... if DD needs tutoring to pass the 11 plus then she is likely to need tutoring to get through grammar school...

I just got her a couple of practice papers so she got the idea of how to complete a test (they didn’t do any form of preparation at her school). She passed easily, went to grammar school and is now at university.

I knew DS would not suit a grammar school so he didn’t even do the test.

As above, too much tutoring indicates unsuitability but no tutoring is just as crazy as you wouldn't do any exam utterly unprepared, Kids at state schools need it more as you can be your life that private schools have been tutoring for ages. Also, not sure if still the case, but state schools hadn't usually covered enough of the maths curriculum by the time of the 11+.