11+ worries

[SophiaMurdoch]

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone could reassure me if I am making the right decision, dd has been offered a place with a top tutor who is very popular but would be charging £50 weekly for two group sessions. At first I was naive and thought there would only be one session but it seems 2 is that standard which is not something we could afford with all the extra cirricular classes she is already doing.

The schools were are looking are are very oversubscibed and the standard the tutors kids are working at is amazing and I am questioning wheater I could really pull it off myself.

Please could anyone offer any words of wisdom?

What makes you think you couldn't pull it off?
What subjects does your dd need for the 11+ because it varies from area to area.
There is loads of stuff covering Maths, English Verbal and non verbal reasoning that you can buy. It might seem daunting but it's not genius level stuff despite what some might have you believe.

I did it myself ... it's speed and practice that count so as long as you understand what you're doing ... and there's tons of material to work on.

Our experience: We have very lightly (nothing over summer hols) tutored DS ourselves and he has just passed the exam for a super selective. I have saved looooooooooooooots of money that have gone into music lessons and better things than 11+ tutoring.

We did have a tutor for a year for dd, she took DD for one group session a week until the summer holidays. I think it depends on whether your child will listen to you- DD1 wouldn't!
During the summer holidays we did 2-3 papers or short work sheets a week ( some of our friend's kids did 2-3+ hours a day!) and tried to do something every day for the couple of weeks before the exam.
We tended to focus on what she got wrong, and went through those questions again.
Most kids who got high marks around here did have tutors, but I think if you have the patience, and the right child, there is no reason you couldn't tutor them yourself.