Tutors please - need a tutor to help prep DS for QE Boys entrance exams

[Timbachick]

Hello,

I think I must have entered the third level of hell ... this is such a scary time.

I am searching for a tutor to help prep my DS for the upcoming QE Boys entrance exams. He is a bright boy and just needs a little additional help fine-tuning his exam procedure and to help him feel properly prepared.

Can anyone recommend a tutor who covers 11+ exam prep (possibly with a working knowledge of prepping boys for QEB)? Maybe you are a tutor who would be willing to take on a/nother student?

Thank you in advance.

The argument for not tutoring children to take 11+ exams only works if no children are being tutored. If virtually all of the child's peer group are being tutored (as is the case here in SW London with children applying for private or grammar schools at 11 from state primary), then it no longer holds that all those who are bright enough will get a place without tutoring.

I suspect people who say, "Don't tutor. If a child needs tutoring to get in they'll struggle," mostly don't live in the areas in which tutoring is the norm. By those standards, there would probably only be a handful of children (10 out of 100) who 'deserved' to get into any of the selective schools round here.

Singersgirl -agree completely. A friend of mine teaches in one of the "super selectives" up here in Norf London. She has a very bright child - one of the brightest in a school of bright children! Even she has said that she wouldn't dream of entering her DC for the 11+ unless she was intensively tutored. This is not because her daughter would not be able to cope with the syllabus at the grammar, it is because every other bright child who will be sitting the exam will have been tutored up to the eyeballs. This places untutored children - however bright - at a huge disadvantage.

I think what is sometimes forgotten on MN is that not all grammar schools face the same competition. A child in this part of London stands a 1 in 12 chance of getting a place whereas in other areas of the country it can be as low as 1 in 3.

norflondoner - thanks for your suggestion. I have already posted on elevenplusexams but thought that MN would also be a good place to pose the question as well.

I will be checking my posting later on today to see if anyone there has had anything to say

We have made two appointments with two tutors this week to see if we like each other and we will go forward from there.

animula - I am downloading the past papers from Habs Boys which I have been advised are on a par with those from QEB. If he can cope with them (esp maths) then he should have no problems with the exams at QEB.

Timbachick,

Do remember that he will have to do well in the reasoning tests in order to even sit the maths and english.

The first time DD saw a NVR test she was in a total panic, after a few test papers she was managing 100% everytime. Tutoring does work but there is no need to overly stress about it.

gypsy - yes, I already have test papers for NVR/VR which he has been practising with.

QEB tests this year in December for NVR/VR and then again in January for maths and english ... if you get through in the first 500! So, it's all guns on NVR/VR at the mo.

Tbh, he really enjoys the NVR/VR papers - he thinks they are quite fun . Not so keen on the maths and english (less fun apparently) but he is not having too many probs at this stage.

Thanks for the reminder though, as I think I get focussed on the the maths and english side of things and forget the reasoning side.

The grammar school I want to get DS1 into, every child who goes there is tutored. Fact. DS1 aparrently has an IQ of 132 when he was tested at just under 8yo. Doesn't mean he'll get into the only grammar school within our area, when the demand is one place for every 60 applicants. I cannot afford to pay for a tutor, but I already do the bond books with him for verbal and non-verbal reasoning at 8 and a half. Next year I will be bankrupting myself paying for a tutor for him, throughout Y5, and until the November of Y6, and my Grandad is going to help me with the costs. There really is no other way, ALL the children sitting the exam will probably have had waaaaay more tutoring than DS1 anyway, as they will have been to Kumon maths and English, and had tutors since Y3. I can only afford just over one year of it, so he will already be at a disadvantage.

^^ Reported for spam, along with all the other posts by the same poster.

Stephanie Williams - this is not how mumsnet works, you have to pay to advertise on here.

SOD OFF Stephanie Williams!

Google Emily-Jane Swanson.

10 sessions worked for us.

Mileage may vary.