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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Entrance exams Good Luck

94 replies

DivaMum23 · 27/12/2011 11:26

Just want to say Good Luck to everyones DD/DS taking entrance exam in 2012
My DS will be sitting his entrance exam first week in January.

OP posts:
SantasHat · 27/12/2011 13:33

Divamum All the best. Try to stay calm as your nerves could/will be communicated to your DS.
Just try to keep a sense of proportion too.
If he doesn't do too well then he wasn't cut out for that school. There will be a place for him somewhere.Xmas Wink

Ladymuck · 27/12/2011 14:26

Good luck!
Tempted to have one more day off from studying today, but yes, it does all seem to be coming round quickly!

gazzalw · 27/12/2011 14:58

Don't envy you after the stressful Autumn Term we had with 11+ exams...how quickly do you find out if your DCs have passed/got places....or will you have the long waiting game that we have too?
Good luck to all your DCs doing entrance exams!

Original poster
DivaMum23 · 27/12/2011 15:48

SantasHat at the moment I am very calm but I know in a few days I'll b a bag of nerves.

Ladymuck No study since Christmas day will get back to it tomorrow, but nothing too intense, just light revising to keep the brain ticking over. I feel DS should be ready at this stage.

Thanks for all the good luck wishes

OP posts:
Idratherbemuckingout · 28/12/2011 16:49

Yes, my best wishes to everyone too. We are just back studying today after a few days off over Christmas. Exams next week, nails nibbled to quick already.

LIZS · 28/12/2011 16:53

dd having a few days off, first one is next week - eek!

Rezolution · 29/12/2011 10:51

To all entrance exam NetMUMS.
Time to roll up your sleeves and get ready for the fray Xmas Wink
All the best to all who are sitting exams in January.

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 29/12/2011 10:53

i really don't need reminding about this. However, DS2 is having time off after Christmas. If he needs to be slaving away now he really doesn't deserve to get in.

And we aren't Netmums Wink

Rezolution · 29/12/2011 10:56

DoesnetChristmasDragon Sorry I meant Mumsnetters Xmas Wink
Yes, well, I meant the good wishes sincerely so here's good luck to you all.

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 29/12/2011 10:59

At least you didn't Hun :o

I have been ignoring the fact that they start next week in the manner of an ostrich. On the plus side, it mess I will soon never have to do another f*cking comprehension with DS2 ever again. It makes me want to gouge my own eyes out with a spoon.

Rezolution · 29/12/2011 11:05

Doesnt Yes, I've been there and it's really depressing.
Keep bashing away at those comprehensions though. The more examples of different types of comp you tackle, the better prepared you are.
btw the schools know this and put in the kind of comp they know kids do not often come across.- so how about letting DC read an article from your daily newspaper (or magazine) and answer questions orally on it? Less boring than writing endless answers. Hope this helps Xmas Smile

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 29/12/2011 11:36

I thought doing it with DS1 was bad... This is far worse.

Doing more with DS2 is counterproductive though. Stubborn is not the word!

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 29/12/2011 11:39

Oh, and answering isn't the problem, it is sheer laziness and a hatred of writing that is the issue.

Still, he is guaranteed a place at the local high school as he passed their pathetically easy entrance exam for the 45 academic places and he passed the exam for the top grammar (although may still not have passed high enough to get a place, we don't know) so he can do it.

Thankfully DD is only in Y1 so I have a while to recover before I have to do it all again!

Ladymuck · 29/12/2011 13:14

If ds could do the exams orally he would sail through. As it is, despite having an extensive vocabulary, he wastes time by trying to come up with the shortest sentence with the shortest words possible to avoid writing a single letter more than he has to. And his retention span seems ridiculously short, so I suspect that last minute revision is the only way to get through this.

And of course, he also feels that reading the * question is a waste of time.

If he had worked for 1/3 of the time that he has spent arguing about why he doesn't need to work, we'd have no need to have done any work over Christmas because he would be up to A level standard....

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 29/12/2011 13:19

"If he had worked for 1/3 of the time that he has spent arguing about why he doesn't need to work, we'd have no need to have done any work over Christmas because he would be up to A level standard...."

God yes! First class degree from Oxbridge even. :o

"DS2, if you'd done this when I asked, you would be back playing and I wouldn't have spent the last 4 days shouting at you"

Rezolution · 29/12/2011 14:33

I sympathise about the answering back and putting off bits on your threads.
The best bit about our secondary school is that the teachers stop all this "putting it off" within the first week. Children learn (and fast) that when the teacher says "jump" they are expected to do it straight away. Makes life easier and saves time all round.
I felt that at the end of primary school the DCs were holding themselves back in some strange way and could not let themselves show what they were made of. This sounds illogical but I'm sure it can happen.Xmas Wink
DH used good old fashioned bribery to get them working!

Idratherbemuckingout · 29/12/2011 16:39

How familiar this all sounds! My DS ALWAYS asks me if we can do the work together. Cue me -"I won't be there beside you next week in the exam" or, worse, to do his writing! "Are you going to expect your teacher to write for you then?"
Read the question? What is that when it's at home?

Show your working? Why should I when I can do it in my head and get it wrong.
Those are his mottos I think.
Actually, he is perfectly capable of doing it all, just too f*ing lazy.

Azure · 29/12/2011 17:23

How much work are your DCs doing each day? Like pulling teeth here.

Ladymuck · 29/12/2011 17:34

I'd like him to do 3, realistically we're doing 2-2.5 most days. But we're arguing for a further 3 hours a day.

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 29/12/2011 17:35

Holy crap - Im lucky if I can get DS2 to do 45 minutes!

Are you going for the same schools as me, Ladymuck? T & W?

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 29/12/2011 17:36

Holy crap - Im lucky if I can get DS2 to do 45 minutes!

Are you going for the same schools as me, Ladymuck? T & W?

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 29/12/2011 17:37

So good I said it twice :o

Ladymuck · 29/12/2011 17:58

Whilst I still like them both, we think that C will be a better fit for him. Originally I was tempted to get him to sit T&W just "to see", but I'm not sure it is worth the money and effort, especially as unless we got a decent %age scholarship, C remains our top choice (and gives ds a better chance of being in one of their top teams...).

Azure · 29/12/2011 18:59

Wow, seriously underworking here. Been an hour per day - need to step it up big time.

LIZS · 30/12/2011 17:49

LM will your ds sit the same tests on 14th with the external candidates or do they do it in normal school time ? We're lucky if dd will do 1 hour per day , often far less atm. Need to ratchet it up over the weekend esp writing but worried she'll get bored and too casual about the whole thing.