11 plus Mock Disaster - what now

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DS sat a (known to be very challenging) Mock 11 plus a couple of weeks ago. He was nervous but in a normal before-an-exam way rather than shuddering wreck.

He's a bright boy and always been in the top groups of his class throughout his school career although sometimes just scraping into it for Maths. However he is quite slapdash and every teacher he has ever had says he rushes and make silly mistakes.

I was pretty sure he'd done badly when he came out and said he'd finished with 15 minutes to spare and it was "easy". I got the results today and he totally tanked it. The Maths grade in particular was abysmal but everything was bad. It was his first formal exam in a strange place but still.... He did well in his year 2 SATS but I guess that is a lot less formal? He's not at a prep so no exam prep at school but we have done practise stuff at home which has been okay.

So what now? - I am pretty sure the issue is him not reading the questions properly and rushing through everything. I've been trying all year to get him to slow down but to no avail. His confidence is easily crushed (though he seemed so pleased with himself after the exam).

Do I just show him the marks and hope it's a wake up call?
Has anyone managed to turn this kind of situation around?
Is it just cruel to carry on down a selective route if he has no aptitude for exams?
He registered for two 11 pluses in September but was also hoping to do Independent schools exams in January.
Any advice gratefully received.

Now this I would demonstrate in practical ways not sit down and tell him ways.

Give him a list of his chores this weekend.

Put 10 on the list.

Put on the other side of the piece of card that you used for the chores that he only has to do number 3 and 6 and if he does the others he forfeits [favourite thing] for [a specified time] this weekend.

I'd do that with three separate things, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then sit him down on sunday night to discuss. Tell him that he absolutely needs to read and make sure he understands the question before starting.

Another good thing to do is to get him to write the opposite of the question before starting, so that he knows what NOT to answer.

Interesting tactic TellsEveryone I am going to work on this now and see where it gets me. I can imagine how infuriating he'll find it!

This is the problem with the 11+, it’s one exam on one day and even really bright kids with bad exam technique can do really badly
What prep has he been having? I know some people don’t agree with tutoring and I’m against intensive cramming but it can help with the exam
One of DDS friends who did really well in the 11+ wasn’t considered to be especially bright but she spent hours doing mock tests online and tests under exam conditions externally. She was also confident and not phased by the exam

My DD had a tutor, exam technique and how to properly answer the questions was thoroughly drilled.
Do lots of practice papers with him.
Being bright alone is not enough.
DD also used an online resource (paid for by tutor) which was really helpful and broke topics down into 10 question segments which you could then track your scores on in a way that made it a bit more fun. Bond I think it was.

He's been going to a group 11 plus course once a week since September and practising verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and a bit of maths (obviously not enough!) at home on both paper and computer programmes. I was planning on upping the practise once the holidays kicked in.

When dd was at this stage I said to her if she did x amount of 11plus practice per day in the holidays.....can’t remember if I said an hour or 30 mins then I’d buy her a Blackberry in Sept.

she did the practice on her own with workbooks though I marked any mock tests she did and we discussed the results. She passed her 11plus.

Thanks all, as you can tell I haven't been through this before! Roughly how long do you think he should be practising a day? Am thinking I've been too slack.

Oh, it’s a bit of a worry he’s been going to a group since Sept and still hasn’t got the hang of the techniques.

I think you certainly need to tell him what mark he got. But emphasise that he isn’t stupid, but that rushing causes silly mistakes.

Christ this is why we should abolish selective schools.

What a ridiculous system.

I'm stuck in a selective area and it's pants. Any pretence that it's a level playing field is out the window.

Maybe your ds isn't up to the supposed 'level' for grammar.

Keep on top of any work set by the tutors and maybe do an hour or two above that. Stuff like times tables or just reading - wide reading is incredibly useful.
Don't sacrifice having time to have fun or chill out. Too much pressure won't help either.
Lots of kids will be like this. My DD was very good at English and VR but no more than average at maths, she passed with flying colours.

What @Noeuf said.
Awful that such young children need to be coached like this.

Ask his teachers whether you think he's bright enough for grammar. It's no fun getting to grammar then scraping by and being bottom of set all the time. Much better to be near the top in a comp.

Maybe he's not bright enough. Maybe he skim read questions and didn't answer the questions properly. How does he do in tests at home?

I'd say if he's been going to an 11+ group since Sept, plus doing all that practice, he should be doing much better if he's to have a chance to pass. What does his group tutor say?

DD took the 11+ and we only did a few maths papers and VR papers in the 3 weeks before the test. She didn't have tutoring. She passed. So tutoring is not essential.

Thanks very much Beamur that's really helpful.

Yes I guess it's difficult to know if he's bright enough for sure. As I say he's always been in the top set and did well in SATS and teachers have always said he's very bright. When we looked round a grammar the other day I noticed that a lot of the boys had come from expensive independents and preps so I suppose the competition has been very well drilled.

I really don't want to cram him so he ends up out of his depth I can't see that that would make anyone happy. I just feel he is not doing anything like as well as he should be able to in the tests.

I also suspect sometimes the mocks are deliberately harder than the exam to focus the mind! I'd tell your son he needs to do a bit more if he wants better marks, but in a way that you think would motivate him.
My other top tip is to practice knowing what the terms of things means - like mean, mode, median, verbs, nouns, clauses, etc. I thought some of the 11+ questions were actually quite easy, but really depended on a solid understanding of the terms. Especially in maths.

He sounds similar to our son - slapdash and rushes through questions, makes silly mistakes etc.

He's in year 7 now, so he took the 11 plus two years ago. He did a mock the first weekend of August and got 34%! Admittedly he'd just come back from holiday and was quite tired. We didn't tell him the result...

In the following four weeks, he did lots of mock papers at home - some full papers and some short tests. We rewarded him for beating his previous scores. Generally speaking in the full mocks we did at home he got between 55 and 70%, usually in the low 60s, so nowhere near as low as in the formal mock. He did well enough for one of our local grammars in the end - obviously you get a standardised score, but some others on our local 11 plus forum requested actual scores and from that, I worked out he probably got in the region of 60% in the real thing.

I suppose what I'm saying is don't give up yet! We focused on exam technique and leaving out difficult questions etc and we got there in the end. I suspect the mock was harder than the real thing - but it was a useful practice at sitting an exam in a big room and listening to instructions (or not!), so it was worth doing.

I think most 'top group' kids are suitable for grammar - but not all will get in. Our son is bobbing along towards the bottom of his class (so he says) but he's not struggling with the pace - when he's done badly it's mainly due to lack of concentration and not enough revision (or not being organised enough to make sure he has the login to the online resources in time to do some revision!). I'm glad he's there as he's being pushed.

When dd passed there were only 2 in her primary school who passed. There would have been more than 2 kids in the top sets in her class. This was an outstanding primary school in a “nice” area where parents cared about their children’s education and were able to afford tutoring, Kip McGrath, etc. So I don’t think being in a top set is necessarily enough to say eleven plus material.

Did your school do CAT test? DDs school use the results of those as an indicator of whether a child should sit the 11 plus.

Thanks CrazyCrofters that does give me something to go on. That's pretty similar to the score my son got . He has just come back from a residential - that might not have helped, I stupidly hadn;t thought of that.

For those who are outlining how hard it is to get in I really do get that he might not get in I just want his exam output to be a better reflection of him.

No CAT tests that I know of.

He needs you to patiently explain that his “It was easy, I had tonnes of time to spare” attitude really isn’t quite the right attitude for exams.

He needs to read, then read again the questions. Then re-read, then answer.

Would you be able to pay for some private tuition to cover taking exams!

Exams may seem vital, but not all children/people are academic, I write for a magazine and I was good at English but I probably wasn’t great at English before my 11+ Is he good with his hands or lateral thinking etc? My brother is clever but dyslexic and is a really good carpenter (even though I don’t speak to him) I’m very proud of what he achieved, please don’t place too much on exams.

My son is another one who tends to rush things. You might already be doing this, but when you're doing timed practice tests at home, make sure you make him stay under 'exam conditions' for the whole time allowed for the test. That's really helped with my son, as he knows that he's not going to get to do something more fun if he finishes early - so he's gradually learning to use the full time to check his work properly. (Having said that, I don't know about you, but I find the timings with these practice books all over the place. Usually DS finishes with acres of time left - but with other tests he can't finish in time.)

I wanted to say that you may well find the independent schools are easier to get into than the grammar schools. The Grammars presumably mop up many bright children so you have a clearer field and they will be children like him.

The other huge advantage of Private school entrance is that they interview. They want to get to know the child a bit. They will look at hobbies and interests such as sport and music. It’s a more rounded selection process.

If you can afford Private, I wouldn’t be flogging the 11 plus, especially if it’s super selective. We gave up a grammar school place for DD and she went to a boarding school. It was best for her - marginally bigger fish in a small pond! It was a more personal experience so if all the tips above don’t get the result you want, and you’d rather have a stress free summer, just accept that Private might be the better route anyway rather than scraping through. (Dd got one mark short of full marks in our LAs test - so she didn’t scrape through but some that did due to over tuition, struggled for years, educationally and mentally).

Thanks Thalassa good tip.

Bubbles thank you for this. DS want to go to a very specific independent school (he's very into sport and quite into music) which we can just about afford but I thought the whole process of trying for the grammars would be helpful (not so sure now!) and give us more options. We are in an area where there is a mix of catchment grammars and super selectives. I've definitely ruled out the super selectives now following an open day and the exam!

He obviously needs to do well enough to get as far as interview then there is hope! I'm glad to hear it worked out for your daughter.

If he wants a sporty Private school, they will, I assume, assess his sporting ability. You could check out what level they like and go all out for this. He might be happier with this aim but I can see why you might not want to pay fees. I would consider what you want your summer to be and your DSs happiness at school. Also many private schools are keen on sport and music: there is choice!

We have county wide 11 plus and DD2 didn’t sit it at all. Just went straight to the same school as her sister. No point in ramping up the pressure.

Sounds like he needs exam technique practice and tutoring specifically. Can you find some resources for that or a tutor who specialises in it ? I strongly suspect that kids who are taught exam technique do way better than kids of equal intelligence who aren’t. That’s certainly what a lot of prep schools focus on - practice poses, mock exams under test conditions, how to answer a question, showing your working etc etc etc.