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Original poster

7+ preparation motivation.

4 replies

theLadyWhoJumpsHigh · 01/10/2025 00:46

(I feel) my daughter is very bright and she is not being served in her current school. I'd like her to sit the 7+ exams to go to a more academic school.

The 7+ exams for this school require a good amount of preparation. She has lost her interest in homework recently. Can you please give me ideas for motivating her to work towards the exam? I have told her she will find the work at the school more stimulating, but she is too young to understand that. She is only 6! I said she'd get more holidays, which piqued her interest for a short bit, but again her brain is too young to understand long-term rewards.

What do people who have sat/ are sitting 7+ say to your kids to encourage them to do the prep please?

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SamPoodle123 · 01/10/2025 09:59

When dc are so young, it works better to do little and often for the prep...building it up to longer sessions closer to the time of the exam. Offer little incentives and awards such as cinema or stickers or pizza movie night or biscuits etc. We did not do the 7+, but have family that did. We did the 11+ though and by then the dc were self motivated.

Pattygonia · 01/10/2025 13:36

Agree with little and often - are you starting now for exams in January or have you got longer to work with?
we did mostly Bond papers which was enough for our quite academic but not super selective 7+ We tended to do one of each type of paper a week and gave child lots of praise and attention. Both children quite enjoyed the verbal and non verbal reasoning ones - treated them like puzzles. English and maths felt more like school work so often did these at weekend or during holidays rather than fitting them in after school. I had plenty of time to do this with them - if you both work/ have time pressure I’d consider a tutor

Original poster
theLadyWhoJumpsHigh · 02/10/2025 23:23

SamPoodle123 · 01/10/2025 09:59

When dc are so young, it works better to do little and often for the prep...building it up to longer sessions closer to the time of the exam. Offer little incentives and awards such as cinema or stickers or pizza movie night or biscuits etc. We did not do the 7+, but have family that did. We did the 11+ though and by then the dc were self motivated.

Thanks for this. I had completely forgotten about short-term rewards, but we might need to revert to them just for the next few months till its done.

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theLadyWhoJumpsHigh · 02/10/2025 23:27

Pattygonia · 01/10/2025 13:36

Agree with little and often - are you starting now for exams in January or have you got longer to work with?
we did mostly Bond papers which was enough for our quite academic but not super selective 7+ We tended to do one of each type of paper a week and gave child lots of praise and attention. Both children quite enjoyed the verbal and non verbal reasoning ones - treated them like puzzles. English and maths felt more like school work so often did these at weekend or during holidays rather than fitting them in after school. I had plenty of time to do this with them - if you both work/ have time pressure I’d consider a tutor

We're aiming for Jan! We have been doing a few papers here and there, but down to the final push and feel we need to be doing more at this end stage, but daughter objects. I will try loads of weekly short-term rewards- you are right, just till January. Many thanks!

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