11+ pre test - help

[Frenchmummy27]

My child just started year 5 and we are looking at independent schools in London to move to next. I have learned that the process for 11+ is a pre test in english, maths, reasoning (verbal and non). Can I ask anyone who has gone through what you did to prepare your child eg Did you Bond books? did you use an online education site? if you had a tutor how often did you have them?
unfortunately, everyone at my child school all the parents are being very secretive about it all.

You need to look at each individual school's website and find out how their assessments work. Helpfully, in London they're all different. Some schools will test for both types of reasoning, some will just focus on English and Maths. Bond books are probably a good starting point, once you've worked out which schools you want to target. Tutors tend to be via personal recommendation in my experience but this website might be a helpful starting point: www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/ although it seems to focus more on selective state/ grammar schools than independents.

It might also be worth speaking to the head at your child's current school about whether a particular school might suit him or her.

Bon courage!

ISEB CPTs are pretty standard now -- you can see on iseb.co.uk which schools utilise it at Y6/Y9 entry. After CPT you get school specific interviews. As this process is quite new there won't be a large amount of parents with experience of it.

That's useful but some still don't use this system. If you were looking for girls schools in north London for example, it looks like NLCS and Habs Girls set their own exams in maths and English but don't do any VR/ NVR.

you're 100% right even for some central and south London schools -- I think OP was talking about CPT as they used the term "pre test". But if school is on the CE 11+ list from ISEB they'll only be able to really lean on guidance from ISEB as it's new.

Ah I see, thanks. Well hopefully between us we've given OP some helpful pointers!

@Frenchmummy27 what schools are you thinking of applying to?

My tips (having just gone through this process) are;

• Go to open days with your child to help you make a shortlist of schools you like. You can register now or soon for open days in the summer term. It's much better to get these out the way as autumn term is busy with prepping. Consider commute times, I think this is one of the biggest factors you can control that will make for a happy secondary school experience for your child.

• Include schools in your shortlist that have a mix of highly competitive and less selective schools BUT make sure you would be happy for your child to go to any of them. The competition is fierce, your child may have a bad day on some of the exam days so don't apply to a bunch of highly competitive schools only. Some people apply to 10 schools and others to 4. Decide what you want to do and what the implications of this is on your child who will need to sit several exams.

• Start prepping now! The competition is tough! We started in May of Year 5 and in hindsight I think this was too late. This is assuming your child is not struggling with any subjects and doing fairly well in reading, writing and maths.

• Sign up to Atom 11+ prep online platform. It's pricey but good. Use this 3 - 4 times a week from now.

• Print out past papers from school's websites and get Bond books. We started with Bond books (papers) for age 9 - 10 first and then onto 10 - 11 after that. Bond books also have ten minute practice papers which are great for adding in the mix. Start with 2 - 3 papers a week. Then 4 - 5 papers in summer holidays into autumn term.

• Get an 11+ prep tutor now, especially if both parents work full time. You can start with once a fortnight or month and then move to once a week from summer holidays.

• Parents are secretive but the ones who are getting offers to the top schools fall into two categories; the first are the tiny fraction of academically gifted children in the population who would ace any exam and a much bigger percentage of children are those who are extensively tutored from Year 2 / 3 onwards. When we got our tutor who lives locally to us we learnt that a whole bunch of kids in my DD class were being tutored by them from Years 2 and 3.

• What other things is your child into? music? dance? sports? art? pick their top passion and commit to it from now. Schools want all rounders beyond academic results. If the schools you're applying to have scholarships in those subjects and your child meets the criteria then apply. For example many schools as for at least grade 5 level in at least one instrument for a music scholarship. If a child plays one instrument at grade 5 level then I think it's a good idea to apply. This child won't get the scholarship (it will go the kid of the tiger mum who is playing grade 8 cello and been training daily since age 3) but your childs' application will stand out. Don't randomly get your child to take up fencing because you think private schools will like this - so many people do this when instead your child could be doing something they actually like and would talk about passionately in an interview.

• Prep for interviews closer to exam time. Interview questions for schools can vary. Some will ask maths problems, some will ask about their interests or why they want to come to this school. Some will ask children to bring in a piece of their writing to discuss. In general a lot of the top schools have interview questions that feel a bit like a short version of an adult job interview. There's only so much prep you can do but cover these bases.

• Do not chat about 11+ constantly at home, with extended family and with parent friends. This can create a lot anxiety for nothing. Just stay focused on doing the prep you can manage and don't be influenced by others around you too much.

We are going to be doing the 11+ again for our second child and the approach above is what we will do. I think over prepping is a dangerous strategy as you may end up having to have your child tutored all the way through secondary school to keep up with their peers. Remember that parents have tutored from year 2 for the 11+ and many of them will do the same for A level results to get to top universities (the top schools ace the league tables because of this home tutoring input too). I don't think this approach does any favours to young people in the long run - think long term, prep a sensible amount and apply to the right schools for your child.

A good school is a stepping stone towards raising an awesome citizen. Some of the most interesting people I know and see around me had wibbly, wobbly journeys in getting there - I remind myself of this while raising children as I want them to fail, make mistakes, not get every opportunity so they can be resilient and grow - it's so hard as a parent as you want the best from them :)

Hope this helps.