Anyone else's child doing the 11+ exam on Monday?

Rianna · 29/01/2006 09:41

Good luck to your son.
My daughter has done hers, has been accepted and now we 'only' have to choose between the two schools.
I was very nervous these days, daughter wasn't at all!

tigermoth · 29/01/2006 09:48

HI secondandrose, wishing your son lots of luck! I know just how you feel. I was so nervous for my son when he took the 11+ last year.

What paper is he doing tomorrow?

Freckle · 29/01/2006 10:14

Good luck. Whereabouts are you? Most areas have already done their 11+ and some have received the results.

My nephew took his and found out this week that he hadn't passed. My sister isn't too upset as she felt that, had he passed, he might well have struggled and not been able to stand the high pressure from his chosen grammar school. She said she'd rather he performed well at the top end of a high school than struggled at the bottom end of a grammar.

What are the schools like in your area?

Original poster

SecondhandRose · 29/01/2006 15:14

He's doing maths, english and non verbal reasoning. I'm am so stressed with it all. Both DS and DD are hoping for scholarships. Hers is 7+ and we will find out about her tomorrow and then he takes his test. My tummy is tied up in knots. Thanks for the support.

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Lonelymum · 29/01/2006 15:18

Whereabouts in the country are you SecondhandRose? I so wish my ds (and my younger children) could have the opportunity to take this exam. Good luck to your ds.

GDG · 29/01/2006 17:05

Good luck SHR!! I remember my 11+ too but don't remember being nervous at all, don't know why! Just did it and forgot about it - I know JT was a bundle of nerves though and couldn't stop herself ringing for the results before they were posted out

We still have the 11+ here now - a good few years till mine get to that (ds1 in reception) but I'll be a complete wreck too!!

Everything's crossed for yours!

RTKangaMummy · 29/01/2006 17:13

All the positve vibes of mumsnet going to your DS tomorrow SHR +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What will you be doing?

We can keep you company on here

charliecat · 29/01/2006 17:15

My dds in year 3, can anyone explain what happens with the 11+...

Freckle · 29/01/2006 18:16

Depends on where you are, charliecat, and whether your area has grammar schools. Basically it's an aptitude test to see if you are best suited to a grammar or high school. If your area doesn't have grammars, you won't get the 11+.

charliecat · 29/01/2006 21:48

In Kent, full of grammars, so does the school put them forward, or do you as the parent? Thansk for answering my questions!

Freckle · 30/01/2006 07:04

Same as me then. The way the system works at my sons' school is that the school give you an indication of whether they think your child is grammar school material or not. Depending on how your local high schools operate their admissions policy (the main good one here won't accept you if you sit the 11+ and fail), it is best to be guided by this recommendation. You then decide whether your child will sit the exam or not. It is not a question of all children sitting it.

You're not in Medway, are you? Because they are a different education authority from the rest of Kent and have different procedures.

charliecat · 30/01/2006 15:59

Not in Medway, Tunbridge Wells (normal person, not rich rare here) Ok, Thanks

Original poster

SecondhandRose · 30/01/2006 16:47

DS said 11+ was fine today, no problems - he hasn't elaborated more than that. DD won a 7+ scholarship today but it was only 15%, feel a bit insulted as they gave 25% to other children last year. Waiting for a call back from the school as I rang to ask if they'd made a mistake!

OP posts:

Original poster

SecondhandRose · 30/01/2006 16:47

DS said 11+ was fine today, no problems - he hasn't elaborated more than that. DD won a 7+ scholarship today but it was only 15%, feel a bit insulted as they gave 25% to other children last year. Waiting for a call back from the school as I rang to ask if they'd made a mistake!

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GDG · 30/01/2006 22:24

Hey SHR - all sounds good though!! Brill!

JoolsToo · 30/01/2006 22:38

good luck to all the 11+ers

tigermoth · 31/01/2006 10:27

good luck to your son, SHR. Has his school prepared him well for the tests? I believe private schools are allowed to do this. Hope all goes well!

Original poster

SecondhandRose · 31/01/2006 11:32

No have been paying for a tutor to teach him all the stuff they haven't taught him especially on the maths paper. They also said that non verbal reasoning can't be taught - it can, it's just a series of puzzles. School pi**ing me off at the moment.

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Hallgerda · 31/01/2006 11:51

SHR, I too am convinced NVR can be taught. And I have my son's practice test results before and after being taught (by me) to prove it! I'm not sure it tests anything sensible, mind you. Or maybe I live in a funny world of my own where I don't have to navigate the strange black and white squiggles everyone else does.

tigermoth · 31/01/2006 12:05

shr, can see why you are P*ed off with the school. I had to do the same with my son, spend hours getting him up to speed in Maths, as the 11+ requires a certain level of mathematical knowledge, no matter what the official line is about coaching. I am sure the school did teach my son a lot, but had no time to go over it if my son missed anything for any reason. I mean, faced with a question about a trapezium, you've got to know what a trapezium is in the first place to answer it!

I also agree that NVR ability can be improved by teaching. There is a knack to it. You have to know what to look for when you see those patterns, what stuff to eliminate, what stuff to check. You can actually get books that list the sort of things to look out for. We didn't use these as I only saw them after the 11+ was over. My son found his NVR the hardest of the tests - apparently many children in our area find this so, according to parent who was an exam invigilator I met afterwards.

My son didn't get a pass mark for the NVR paper but when the scores for the other three papers were added together, he got a pass overall - luckily!

Original poster

SecondhandRose · 31/01/2006 13:08

Just had a chat with DD's headmistress. We received a letter before the 7+ inviting the children to sit for it but also telling us not to coach our children so I didn't. She has told me this morning that 'outside' children sat the exam too and the results were very high. Bloody hell if I'd known that I'd have done some work at home with her.

Her tone told me we were lucky to get 15%! I asked that if other people did not take their scholarships up would she distribute them to the other scholars, she didn't say no so fingers crossed.

Some schools actually teach NVR as a subject, hopefully DH was taught the basics by us and the tutor in time for the exam. I also said that when they say "pens down" to put in an answer for any multiple choices he hadn't filled in. He said he had to just scribble in the last 4 at the end.

I also asked the head if it was possible he would get a 50% scholarship she said it was highly unlikely as only the top 20 out of 200 get them. In other words he's not clever enough!! I felt like suggesting that perhaps he should have been taught what was on the bloody paper!!

Sorry for my rant.

OP posts:

Freckle · 31/01/2006 14:01

DS1 took the 11+ last year and thankfully was offered a place at grammar school where he is doing fabulously.

DS2 is faced with doing it next year. He really wants to go to DS1's school and should not generally have a problem as he is very bright. However, I am aware that there is a lot in the 11+ which is not covered by the national curriculum before they sit it and DS2 lacks confidence in his own abilities. So I am now faced with going against my principles and paying for a tutor or letting him take his chances against the general level of ability. However, there are schools in this area which heavily coach their pupils and others, like DS2's, which do nothing to prepare pupils.

Can I afford to let my principles possibly adversely affect DS2's chances of getting into a grammar school? I've come to the conclusion that I can't. If it were a simple case of a pass mark which every child had to attain, I might let him take his chances, but he will be competing directly against the marks achieved by others who have been coached specifically for this exacm, so I can't. So that's £20 a week for the next year - and I'm supposed to be economising!

Hallgerda · 31/01/2006 14:27

Freckle, have you considered just going through some practice papers with your son yourself? Surely if 11-year-olds are supposed to manage, most parents should be able to cope? I really don't understand how a tutoring industry has grown up. But then maybe my comeuppance for my arrogant attitude will come in early March. Still, the local comp's OK...

Freckle · 31/01/2006 14:33

Not really, because anything I say doesn't count! He really needs to hear it from someone independent.

The position here is that, if he takes the 11+ and fails, he will be offered a "sink" school and that's a chance I can't take.

tigermoth · 31/01/2006 15:20

Halgerda, I did a bit of both - tutoring my son directly and getting him some private lessons. I think the two are very different. Yes, I could help my son, and did go through old test papers with him, but with maths especially, my methods of doing things were at times very different to the methods he had been taught at school and half remembered.

He needed coaching from someone who knew what methods he had been taught at school so the tutor's work complimented the teacher's work, otherwise I'd have had one confused son.

Freckle - good luck and don't envy you going through it all again. I think you are right to get some coaching, as so many other children aer coached. FWIW, I also think that there's coaching and coaching - some children I knew had a private, professional tutor coming to their homes twice a week for one-to-one sessions and were given 11+ homework as well. And they had this this support for 2 years before the 11+.

My son went to a class onece a week for an hour. (Incidently I went with an organisation called The Extra Tuition Centre and it cost £50.00 a calendar month with free assessments, so a bit less expensive than a private tutor - there might be a ETC in your area) My son was taught by students (sixth formers and student teachers I'd imagine) - anyway, many looked under 20 years old. There were approx 10 children and 2 tutors, so no continuous individual attention and no homework was set. He spent the hour doing short practice tests which were marked by the tutors, who then went over any of the answers he got wrong. It was not particularly organised but it was something. He had this for six months before the 11+ so he had much less intensive tutoring than some of the others who sat the test.

He passed the 11+ with marks to spare, but didn't get super high flying results, so I was a bit apprehensive about how he'd cope at grammar school. So far, he says he feels he's at the level he should be - the standard of expectation is ok for him.