Thread for all those with children cramming for the 11+ in the Christmas holidays!

[foofi]

Just thought we could offer each other support. DD has done a fair amount of preparation over the last term but I can't get her to do anything at home! Am thinking she needs a bit of a break, but hoping I can get her to knuckle down after Christmas!

oh, clearly none of you live in n london...... it's 11+ HELL round here...... learnt yesterday of family who took child's tutor on caribbean christmas holiday with them . ds1 did 2 hours a day over hols.... and so did most of his peers. the academically selective (private) school here have 500 applicants for 70 places, the grammars have 2,000 applicants for 100 or so places....unfreakingbelievable

controlfreaky, remember everybody is making multiple applications to half a dozen schools, but each child only needs ONE school place. So there aren't really 500 applications for 70 places. I suspect by the time you take multiple applications out of the equation there's a maximum of two applicants for each place, and probably fewer.

Bear in mind that people whose kids are mid-range bright will still apply for one or two top-flight schools on the offchance, and probably a couple of lower-ranked ones as a safety net. All of dd1's friends who went for selective schools got a place, although one or two didn't get their first choice.

Remember also that the schools have a vested interest in talking up the standard required -- as I've said before on here it's simply not statistically possible for there to be that many geniuses in any given year group among the offspring of middle-class North Londoners.

Bonne chance!

thanks for the calming thoughts frogs..... the whole secondary school thing has driven me BONKERS..... ds1 did ucs exam on monday.... came out saying "it was fine... i think i did fine etc..." since then keeps saying things that make me think maybe it wasnt that fine! . oh well, the end is in sight!

Well,its all over for us in kent,test was on tues/weds. We are forgetting about it now [till march anyway].