Anyone else thinking of self tutoring for 11+ or are you all paying someone else to do it?

[kizzie]

After lots of thought have decided that probably put DS Twin1 in for local grammar school exam.

(long story but basically one twin very academic. Other twin much less so. I absolutely disagree with tuturing to try ang get a child through the exam who would then struggle at the school. however know that DS1 will need at least some tutoring with verbal/non verbal reasoning as they do no prep for this at their primary.)

Dont even know where to start - will have to research which books to use etc. has anyone got any tips (inc 'forget it' would like to hear honest opinions.) Plus where to start looking for practice books etc.

Thanks!

You can't really coach them to do well in the exam, but it is good for them to know what to expect ahead of time. Therefore, you can get some NFER practice papers from your local bookshop, that will give your DS familiarisation with verbal and non-verbal reasoning, and mathematicl reasoning.

My daughter had exam tutoring and as well as learning techniques to answer the questions, she was taught how to quickly realise which answers it couldn't possibly be and disregard those.

And also how to keep working, even if she needed to speak to the exam invigilator about something. She was told by her tutor to report anything off putting in the exam, ie if someone pukes next to you (and it does happen, with the nerves!) that might be taken into account and noted.

Hi Science Teacher. Thanks so much for that. Thats what Im hoping really - because they dont do anything at all similar at the primary school so I think no matter how bright you are you could have a big shock on the day. Im really not keen on the idea of 'hot house turtoring'. But at the same time I dont want to set him up for an inevitable fall without giving him any prep/grounding at all.

Im always very cautious not to give too many personal details out on the net but if I said the name of the school there'd probably be a general sigh of 'aah yes' around mumsnet because its quite well known and think its probably been discussed a lot on here. . thanks for advice.

Oh ST - just read your profile. You'll know which school im talking about x

Thanks Maidamess. Really useful to hear.

Thanks for all the info Sue. I found some Athey papers on the internet a while ago and let DS have a try at them. He seemed to cope with them quite well. Will have a look at Bond too. Think Ive got lots of reading to do !!!

Kizziex

paying
wea rent self dicilplined enough
altho tutor seemd quite donfident he woudl be ok
but GOD oyu never know

I think also having a tutor must help to actually keep some of the stress out of it. It is usually the parents who are more worried than the kids, and our head takes great pains to exhort parents to avoid sharing any of their anxiety with their kids.

Feeling paranoid.... I have info in my profile???

oooh sorry Science teacher. In the bit you've written about yourself (when you click on your name). Sorry!!! Didnt mean to make you feel paranoid. Im sure you can delete or hide it though if you dont want anyone to see x

Click on 'My Mumsnet' at the top (when you are logged in).

Then on 'public profile'

Then on your 'current public profile page' you can click on 'no' at the bottom of the page so that noone else can see it.

(or you can change your details to be as vague as you like.)

x

PS.. Let me know if you want any of this thread deleting and I'll ask mumsnet towers to do it. Sorry

I remember our daughters doing the Bond papers a lot in the run up to 11+ at school.

The Bond papers are good but don't practice all the types of verbal reasoning questions your DS Twin1 might come across on the day, so as ScienceTeacher says the NFER papers are good. Last time I checked in our area there was no negative marking in the 11+ so in the last few minutes if there is anything not answered it is worth taking a guess at the most likely answer. You should be able to find out if there is negative marking in your area.

You can get some free downloads here: www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/MW_Educational_revision_practice_papers_download.php

and there is also a lot of useful information on that site.

We just did some stuff with ds1 at home. Rather than cram it in and stress about it over a few months, we just did a bit now and then and in fits and starts over a period of about 18 months.

The school info said "No prior coaching for the tests is required. They will be consistent with work at Key Stage 2".

But most of the children move up from the primary dept of the school, and every year they do Bond/Nelson tests including NVR. So we decided ds1 needed some practice to be on a level playing field.

One of the main things some practise did for him was to increase his speed immensely: and I think this was helpful.

In the event (only Friday so I don't know how he did) the NVR test was 50 Qs in 30 mins and he said he only just finished. The Maths paper was an hour and he said he did all except one question, and thinks he did OK.

The results of children who've done no practice at all will simply not be comparable to those who have.

Ds was completely relaxed and unstressed about the day (unlike me who didn't sleep the night before), so home-tutoring didn't have a negative effect that way I guess.

If you google 11+ parents forum (or similar) there are some chatrooms with invaluable advice from people in the same boat. Sorry, but am crap at links or would post it here.

Thanks so much for all the advice. xxx

DH is up for helping so at least it will be shared. Will update on how we are getting on xx