when do people start preparing their kids for secondary school entrance exams?

[PSCMUM]

D" is in year 4, I'm looking at tutors now. Is this too early? late? how often do people think they should do extra work?
any tips gratefullyl received from those who have been there and done this big pile of stress already!

DS. not D"!
good job its not me taking the exams!

We started in yr5, working through papers at home from a small start in the January through to loads after the Summer hols (exams in Oct/Nov).

Have a look here as some are celebrating their results today.

thanks, so the exams are in the first time of year 6? thats good to know. thanks.

As far as I can tell, it's a judgement you the parent after weighing up the following: how bright your child is; how selective your chosen school is; how much it matters to you if they don't pass; how much you think is a reasonable burden for your child; and how much extra tutoring other parents are giving their children.

As you can't possibly know the exact answers to most of those there's a lot of guesswork.

Not really sure the benefits of selective schools outweigh the disadvantages of the process of selection myself.

we;re going to try for both. but i'd much rather state. there is something about paying for education - its just too elitist for me I think. Though i know any kind of selection is basically elitist and wrong, I can't put my kids in our local school as I don't know where to buy bullet proof vests. So i'm copping out, but hopefully not all the way out to private school, though i'll never say never on that one, got to just keep their best interests and not my politics as the focus.